Interactions with 3D virtual objects using poses and multiple-dof controllers

ABSTRACT

A wearable system can comprise a display system configured to present virtual content in a three-dimensional space, a user input device configured to receive a user input, and one or more sensors configured to detect a user&#39;s pose. The wearable system can support various user interactions with objects in the user&#39;s environment based on contextual information. As an example, the wearable system can adjust the size of an aperture of a virtual cone during a cone cast (e.g., with the user&#39;s poses) based on the contextual information. As another example, the wearable system can adjust the amount of movement of virtual objects associated with an actuation of the user input device based on the contextual information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/530,901, filed Aug. 2, 2019, entitled “INTERACTIONS WITH 3D VIRTUALOBJECTS USING POSES AND MULTIPLE-DOF CONTROLLERS,” which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/053,620, filed Aug.2, 2018, entitled “INTERACTIONS WITH 3D VIRTUAL OBJECTS USING POSES ANDMULTIPLE-DOF CONTROLLERS,” now U.S. Pat. No. 10,417,831, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/473,444, filed Mar.29, 2017, entitled “INTERACTIONS WITH 3D VIRTUAL OBJECTS USING POSES ANDMULTIPLE-DOF CONTROLLERS,” now U.S. Pat. No. 10,078,919, which claimsthe benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 62/316,030, filed on Mar. 31, 2016, entitled “CONECASTING WITH DYNAMICALLY UPDATED APERTURE,” and to U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 62/325,679, filed on Apr. 21, 2016, entitled “DYNAMICMAPPING OF USER INPUT DEVICE;” all of which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to virtual reality and augmented realityimaging and visualization systems and more particularly to interactingwith virtual objects based on contextual information.

BACKGROUND

Modern computing and display technologies have facilitated thedevelopment of systems for so called “virtual reality”, “augmentedreality”, or “mixed reality” experiences, wherein digitally reproducedimages or portions thereof are presented to a user in a manner whereinthey seem to be, or may be perceived as, real. A virtual reality, or“VR”, scenario typically involves presentation of digital or virtualimage information without transparency to other actual real-world visualinput; an augmented reality, or “AR”, scenario typically involvespresentation of digital or virtual image information as an augmentationto visualization of the actual world around the user; a mixed reality,or “MR”, related to merging real and virtual worlds to produce newenvironments where physical and virtual objects co-exist and interact inreal time. As it turns out, the human visual perception system is verycomplex, and producing a VR, AR, or MR technology that facilitates acomfortable, natural-feeling, rich presentation of virtual imageelements amongst other virtual or real-world imagery elements ischallenging. Systems and methods disclosed herein address variouschallenges related to VR, AR and MR technology.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment, a system for interacting with objects for a wearabledevice is disclosed. The system comprises a display system of a wearabledevice configured to present a three-dimensional (3D) view to a user andpermit a user interaction with objects in a field of regard (FOR) of auser. The FOR can comprise a portion of the environment around the userthat is capable of being perceived by the user via the display system.The system can also comprise a sensor configured to acquire dataassociated with a pose of the user and a hardware processor incommunication with the sensor and the display system. The hardwareprocessor is programmed to: determine a pose of the user based on thedata acquired by the sensor; initiate a cone cast on a group of objectsin the FOR, the cone cast comprises casting a virtual cone with anaperture in a direction based at least partly on the pose of the user;analyze contextual information associated with the user's environment;update the aperture of the virtual cone based at least partly on thecontextual information; and render a visual representation of thevirtual cone for the cone cast.

In another embodiment, a method for interacting with objects for awearable device is disclosed. The method comprises receiving a selectionof a target virtual object displayed to a user at a first position in athree-dimensional (3D) space; receiving an indication of a movement forthe target virtual object; analyzing contextual information associatedwith the target virtual object; calculating a multiplier to be appliedto a movement of the target virtual object based at least partly on thecontextual information; calculating a movement amount for the targetvirtual object, the movement amount based at least partly on theindication of the movement and the multiplier; and displaying, to theuser, the target virtual object at a second position, the secondposition based at least in part on the first position and the movementamount.

In yet another embodiment, a system for interacting with objects for awearable device is disclosed. The system comprises a display system of awearable device configured to present a three-dimensional (3D) view ofto a user, where the 3D view comprises a target virtual object. Thesystem can also comprise a hardware processor in communication with thedisplay system. The hardware processor is programmed to: receive anindication of a movement for the target virtual object; analyzecontextual information associated with the target virtual object;calculate a multiplier to be applied to a movement of the target virtualobject based at least partly on the contextual information; calculate amovement amount for the target virtual object, the movement amount basedat least partly on the indication of the movement and the multiplier;and display, by the display system, the target virtual object at asecond position, the second position based at least in part on the firstposition and the movement amount.

Details of one or more implementations of the subject matter describedin this specification are set forth in the accompanying drawings and thedescription below. Other features, aspects, and advantages will becomeapparent from the description, the drawings, and the claims. Neitherthis summary nor the following detailed description purports to defineor limit the scope of the inventive subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an illustration of a mixed reality scenario with certainvirtual reality objects, and certain physical objects viewed by aperson.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an example of a wearable system.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates aspects of an approach for simulatingthree-dimensional imagery using multiple depth planes.

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates an example of a waveguide stack foroutputting image information to a user.

FIG. 5 shows example exit beams that may be outputted by a waveguide.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an optical system including awaveguide apparatus, an optical coupler subsystem to optically couplelight to or from the waveguide apparatus, and a control subsystem, usedin the generation of a multi-focal volumetric display, image, or lightfield.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an example of a wearable system.

FIG. 8 is a process flow diagram of an example of a method of renderingvirtual content in relation to recognized objects.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of another example of a wearable system.

FIG. 10 is a process flow diagram of an example of a method fordetermining user input to a wearable system.

FIG. 11 is a process flow diagram of an example of a method forinteracting with a virtual user interface.

FIG. 12A illustrates examples of cone casting with non-negligibleapertures.

FIGS. 12B and 12C are examples of selecting a virtual object using conecasting with different dynamically adjusted apertures.

FIGS. 12D, 12E, 12F, and 12G describe examples of dynamically adjustingan aperture based on the density of objects.

FIGS. 13, 14, and 15 are flowcharts of example processes for selectinginteractable objects using cone casting with a dynamically adjustableaperture.

FIG. 16 schematically illustrates an example of moving a virtual objectusing the user input device.

FIG. 17 schematically illustrates examples of a multiplier as a functionof distance.

FIG. 18 illustrates a flowchart of an example process for moving avirtual object in response to movements of the user input device.

Throughout the drawings, reference numbers may be re-used to indicatecorrespondence between referenced elements. The drawings are provided toillustrate example embodiments described herein and are not intended tolimit the scope of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

A wearable system can be configured to display virtual content in anAR/VR/MR environment. The wearable system can allow a user to interactwith physical or virtual objects in the user's environment. A user caninteract with the objects, e.g., by selecting and moving objects, usingposes or by actuating a user input device. For example, the user maymove the user input device for a certain distance and the virtual objectwill follow the user input device and move the same amount of distance.Similarly, the wearable system may use cone casting to allow a user toselect or target the virtual object with poses. As the user moves hishead, the wearable system can accordingly target and select differentvirtual objects in the user's field of view.

These approaches can cause user fatigue if the objects are spacedrelatively far apart. This is because in order to move the virtualobject to the desired location or to reach a desired object, a userneeds to move the user input device or increase the amount of bodymovements (e.g., increasing the amount of arm or head movement) for alarge distance as well. Additionally, precise positioning for a distanceobject can be challenging because it may be difficult to see smallamounts of adjustment at a far-away location. On the other hand, whenobjects are closer together, the user may prefer more precisepositioning in order to accurately interact with a desired object.

To reduce user fatigue and provide dynamic user interactions with thewearable system, the wearable system can automatically adjust the userinterface operations based on contextual information.

As an example of providing dynamic user interactions based on contextualinformation, the wearable system can automatically update the apertureof the cone in cone casting based on contextual factors. For example, ifthe user turns her head toward a direction with a high density ofobjects, the wearable system may automatically decrease the coneaperture so that there are fewer virtual, selectable objects within thecone. Similarly, if the user turns her head to a direction with a lowdensity of objects, the wearable system may automatically increase thecone aperture to either include more objects within the cone or todecrease the amount of movement necessary in order to overlap the conewith a virtual object.

As another example, the wearable system can provide a multiplier whichcan translate the amount of movement of the user input device (and/orthe movements of the user) to a greater amount of movement of thevirtual object. As a result, the user does not have to physically move alarge distance to move the virtual object to a desired location when theobject is located far away. However, the multiplier may be set to onewhen the virtual object is close to the user (e.g., within the user'shand reach). Accordingly, the wearable system can provide one-to-onemanipulation between the user movement and the virtual object'smovement. This may allow the user to interact with the nearby virtualobject with increased precision. Examples of user interactions based oncontextual information are described in details below.

Examples of 3D Display of a Wearable System

A wearable system (also referred to herein as an augmented reality (AR)system) can be configured to present 2D or 3D virtual images to a user.The images may be still images, frames of a video, or a video, incombination or the like. The wearable system can include a wearabledevice that can present a VR, AR, or MR environment, alone or incombination, for user interaction. The wearable device can be ahead-mounted device (HMD).

FIG. 1 depicts an illustration of a mixed reality scenario with certainvirtual reality objects, and certain physical objects viewed by aperson. In FIG. 1, an MR scene 100 is depicted wherein a user of an MRtechnology sees a real-world park-like setting 110 featuring people,trees, buildings in the background, and a concrete platform 120. Inaddition to these items, the user of the MR technology also perceivesthat he “sees” a robot statue 130 standing upon the real-world platform120, and a cartoon-like avatar character 140 flying by which seems to bea personification of a bumble bee, even though these elements do notexist in the real world.

In order for the 3D display to produce a true sensation of depth, andmore specifically, a simulated sensation of surface depth, it may bedesirable for each point in the display's visual field to generate anaccommodative response corresponding to its virtual depth. If theaccommodative response to a display point does not correspond to thevirtual depth of that point, as determined by the binocular depth cuesof convergence and stereopsis, the human eye may experience anaccommodation conflict, resulting in unstable imaging, harmful eyestrain, headaches, and, in the absence of accommodation information,almost a complete lack of surface depth.

VR, AR, and MR experiences can be provided by display systems havingdisplays in which images corresponding to a plurality of depth planesare provided to a viewer. The images may be different for each depthplane (e.g., provide slightly different presentations of a scene orobject) and may be separately focused by the viewer's eyes, therebyhelping to provide the user with depth cues based on the accommodationof the eye required to bring into focus different image features for thescene located on different depth plane or based on observing differentimage features on different depth planes being out of focus. Asdiscussed elsewhere herein, such depth cues provide credible perceptionsof depth.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of wearable system 200. The wearablesystem 200 includes a display 220, and various mechanical and electronicmodules and systems to support the functioning of display 220. Thedisplay 220 may be coupled to a frame 230, which is wearable by a user,wearer, or viewer 210. The display 220 can be positioned in front of theeyes of the user 210. The display 220 can present AR/VR/MR content to auser. The display 220 can comprise a head mounted display (HMD) that isworn on the head of the user. In some embodiments, a speaker 240 iscoupled to the frame 230 and positioned adjacent the ear canal of theuser (in some embodiments, another speaker, not shown, is positionedadjacent the other ear canal of the user to provide for stereo/shapeablesound control).

The wearable system 200 can include an outward-facing imaging system 464(shown in FIG. 4) which observes the world in the environment around theuser. The wearable system 200 can also include an inward-facing imagingsystem 462 (shown in FIG. 4) which can track the eye movements of theuser. The inward-facing imaging system may track either one eye'smovements or both eyes' movements. The inward-facing imaging system 462may be attached to the frame 230 and may be in electrical communicationwith the processing modules 260 or 270, which may process imageinformation acquired by the inward-facing imaging system to determine,e.g., the pupil diameters or orientations of the eyes, eye movements oreye pose of the user 210.

As an example, the wearable system 200 can use the outward-facingimaging system 464 or the inward-facing imaging system 462 to acquireimages of a pose of the user. The images may be still images, frames ofa video, or a video, in combination or the like.

The display 220 can be operatively coupled 250, such as by a wired leador wireless connectivity, to a local data processing module 260 whichmay be mounted in a variety of configurations, such as fixedly attachedto the frame 230, fixedly attached to a helmet or hat worn by the user,embedded in headphones, or otherwise removably attached to the user 210(e.g., in a backpack-style configuration, in a belt-coupling styleconfiguration).

The local processing and data module 260 may comprise a hardwareprocessor, as well as digital memory, such as non-volatile memory (e.g.,flash memory), both of which may be utilized to assist in theprocessing, caching, and storage of data. The data may include data a)captured from sensors (which may be, e.g., operatively coupled to theframe 230 or otherwise attached to the user 210), such as image capturedevices (e.g., cameras in the inward-facing imaging system or theoutward-facing imaging system), microphones, inertial measurement units(IMUs), accelerometers, compasses, global positioning system (GPS)units, radio devices, or gyroscopes; or b) acquired or processed usingremote processing module 270 or remote data repository 280, possibly forpassage to the display 220 after such processing or retrieval. The localprocessing and data module 260 may be operatively coupled bycommunication links 262 or 264, such as via wired or wirelesscommunication links, to the remote processing module 270 or remote datarepository 280 such that these remote modules are available as resourcesto the local processing and data module 260. In addition, remoteprocessing module 280 and remote data repository 280 may be operativelycoupled to each other.

In some embodiments, the remote processing module 270 may comprise oneor more processors configured to analyze and process data and/or imageinformation. In some embodiments, the remote data repository 280 maycomprise a digital data storage facility, which may be available throughthe internet or other networking configuration in a “cloud” resourceconfiguration. In some embodiments, all data is stored and allcomputations are performed in the local processing and data module,allowing fully autonomous use from a remote module.

The human visual system is complicated and providing a realisticperception of depth is challenging. Without being limited by theory, itis believed that viewers of an object may perceive the object as beingthree-dimensional due to a combination of vergence and accommodation.Vergence movements (i.e., rolling movements of the pupils toward or awayfrom each other to converge the lines of sight of the eyes to fixateupon an object) of the two eyes relative to each other are closelyassociated with focusing (or “accommodation”) of the lenses of the eyes.Under normal conditions, changing the focus of the lenses of the eyes,or accommodating the eyes, to change focus from one object to anotherobject at a different distance will automatically cause a matchingchange in vergence to the same distance, under a relationship known asthe “accommodation-vergence reflex.” Likewise, a change in vergence willtrigger a matching change in accommodation, under normal conditions.Display systems that provide a better match between accommodation andvergence may form more realistic and comfortable simulations ofthree-dimensional imagery.

FIG. 3 illustrates aspects of an approach for simulating athree-dimensional imagery using multiple depth planes. With reference toFIG. 3, objects at various distances from eyes 302 and 304 on the z-axisare accommodated by the eyes 302 and 304 so that those objects are infocus. The eyes 302 and 304 assume particular accommodated states tobring into focus objects at different distances along the z-axis.Consequently, a particular accommodated state may be said to beassociated with a particular one of depth planes 306, with has anassociated focal distance, such that objects or parts of objects in aparticular depth plane are in focus when the eye is in the accommodatedstate for that depth plane. In some embodiments, three-dimensionalimagery may be simulated by providing different presentations of animage for each of the eyes 302 and 304, and also by providing differentpresentations of the image corresponding to each of the depth planes.While shown as being separate for clarity of illustration, it will beappreciated that the fields of view of the eyes 302 and 304 may overlap,for example, as distance along the z-axis increases. In addition, whileshown as flat for the ease of illustration, it will be appreciated thatthe contours of a depth plane may be curved in physical space, such thatall features in a depth plane are in focus with the eye in a particularaccommodated state. Without being limited by theory, it is believed thatthe human eye typically can interpret a finite number of depth planes toprovide depth perception. Consequently, a highly believable simulationof perceived depth may be achieved by providing, to the eye, differentpresentations of an image corresponding to each of these limited numberof depth planes.

Waveguide Stack Assembly

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a waveguide stack for outputting imageinformation to a user. A wearable system 400 includes a stack ofwaveguides, or stacked waveguide assembly 480 that may be utilized toprovide three-dimensional perception to the eye/brain using a pluralityof waveguides 432 b, 434 b, 436 b, 438 b, 4400 b. In some embodiments,the wearable system 400 may correspond to wearable system 200 of FIG. 2,with FIG. 4 schematically showing some parts of that wearable system 200in greater detail. For example, in some embodiments, the waveguideassembly 480 may be integrated into the display 220 of FIG. 2.

With continued reference to FIG. 4, the waveguide assembly 480 may alsoinclude a plurality of features 458, 456, 454, 452 between thewaveguides. In some embodiments, the features 458, 456, 454, 452 may belenses. In other embodiments, the features 458, 456, 454, 452 may not belenses. Rather, they may simply be spacers (e.g., cladding layers orstructures for forming air gaps).

The waveguides 432 b, 434 b, 436 b, 438 b, 440 b or the plurality oflenses 458, 456, 454, 452 may be configured to send image information tothe eye with various levels of wavefront curvature or light raydivergence. Each waveguide level may be associated with a particulardepth plane and may be configured to output image informationcorresponding to that depth plane. Image injection devices 420, 422,424, 426, 428 may be utilized to inject image information into thewaveguides 440 b, 438 b, 436 b, 434 b, 432 b, each of which may beconfigured to distribute incoming light across each respectivewaveguide, for output toward the eye 410. Light exits an output surfaceof the image injection devices 420, 422, 424, 426, 428 and is injectedinto a corresponding input edge of the waveguides 440 b, 438 b, 436 b,434 b, 432 b. In some embodiments, a single beam of light (e.g., acollimated beam) may be injected into each waveguide to output an entirefield of cloned collimated beams that are directed toward the eye 410 atparticular angles (and amounts of divergence) corresponding to the depthplane associated with a particular waveguide.

In some embodiments, the image injection devices 420, 422, 424, 426, 428are discrete displays that each produce image information for injectioninto a corresponding waveguide 440 b, 438 b, 436 b, 434 b, 432 b,respectively. In some other embodiments, the image injection devices420, 422, 424, 426, 428 are the output ends of a single multiplexeddisplay which may, e.g., pipe image information via one or more opticalconduits (such as fiber optic cables) to each of the image injectiondevices 420, 422, 424, 426, 428.

A controller 460 controls the operation of the stacked waveguideassembly 480 and the image injection devices 420, 422, 424, 426, 428.The controller 460 includes programming (e.g., instructions in anon-transitory computer-readable medium) that regulates the timing andprovision of image information to the waveguides 440 b, 438 b, 436 b,434 b, 432 b. In some embodiments, the controller 460 may be a singleintegral device, or a distributed system connected by wired or wirelesscommunication channels. The controller 460 may be part of the processingmodules 260 or 270 (illustrated in FIG. 2) in some embodiments.

The waveguides 440 b, 438 b, 436 b, 434 b, 432 b may be configured topropagate light within each respective waveguide by total internalreflection (TIR). The waveguides 440 b, 438 b, 436 b, 434 b, 432 b mayeach be planar or have another shape (e.g., curved), with major top andbottom surfaces and edges extending between those major top and bottomsurfaces. In the illustrated configuration, the waveguides 440 b, 438 b,436 b, 434 b, 432 b may each include light extracting optical elements440 a, 438 a, 436 a, 434 a, 432 a that are configured to extract lightout of a waveguide by redirecting the light, propagating within eachrespective waveguide, out of the waveguide to output image informationto the eye 410. Extracted light may also be referred to as outcoupledlight, and light extracting optical elements may also be referred to asoutcoupling optical elements. An extracted beam of light is outputted bythe waveguide at locations at which the light propagating in thewaveguide strikes a light redirecting element. The light extractingoptical elements (440 a, 438 a, 436 a, 434 a, 432 a) may, for example,be reflective or diffractive optical features. While illustrateddisposed at the bottom major surfaces of the waveguides 440 b, 438 b,436 b, 434 b, 432 b for ease of description and drawing clarity, in someembodiments, the light extracting optical elements 440 a, 438 a, 436 a,434 a, 432 a may be disposed at the top or bottom major surfaces, or maybe disposed directly in the volume of the waveguides 440 b, 438 b, 436b, 434 b, 432 b. In some embodiments, the light extracting opticalelements 440 a, 438 a, 436 a, 434 a, 432 a may be formed in a layer ofmaterial that is attached to a transparent substrate to form thewaveguides 440 b, 438 b, 436 b, 434 b, 432 b. In some other embodiments,the waveguides 440 b, 438 b, 436 b, 434 b, 432 b may be a monolithicpiece of material and the light extracting optical elements 440 a, 438a, 436 a, 434 a, 432 a may be formed on a surface or in the interior ofthat piece of material.

With continued reference to FIG. 4, as discussed herein, each waveguide440 b, 438 b, 436 b, 434 b, 432 b is configured to output light to forman image corresponding to a particular depth plane. For example, thewaveguide 432 b nearest the eye may be configured to deliver collimatedlight, as injected into such waveguide 432 b, to the eye 410. Thecollimated light may be representative of the optical infinity focalplane. The next waveguide up 434 b may be configured to send outcollimated light which passes through the first lens 452 (e.g., anegative lens) before it can reach the eye 410. First lens 452 may beconfigured to create a slight convex wavefront curvature so that theeye/brain interprets light coming from that next waveguide up 434 b ascoming from a first focal plane closer inward toward the eye 410 fromoptical infinity. Similarly, the third up waveguide 436 b passes itsoutput light through both the first lens 452 and second lens 454 beforereaching the eye 410. The combined optical power of the first and secondlenses 452 and 454 may be configured to create another incrementalamount of wavefront curvature so that the eye/brain interprets lightcoming from the third waveguide 436 b as coming from a second focalplane that is even closer inward toward the person from optical infinitythan was light from the next waveguide up 434 b.

The other waveguide layers (e.g., waveguides 438 b, 440 b) and lenses(e.g., lenses 456, 458) are similarly configured, with the highestwaveguide 440 b in the stack sending its output through all of thelenses between it and the eye for an aggregate focal powerrepresentative of the closest focal plane to the person. To compensatefor the stack of lenses 458, 456, 454, 452 when viewing/interpretinglight coming from the world 470 on the other side of the stackedwaveguide assembly 480, a compensating lens layer 430 may be disposed atthe top of the stack to compensate for the aggregate power of the lensstack 458, 456, 454, 452 below. Such a configuration provides as manyperceived focal planes as there are available waveguide/lens pairings.Both the light extracting optical elements of the waveguides and thefocusing aspects of the lenses may be static (e.g., not dynamic orelectro-active). In some alternative embodiments, either or both may bedynamic using electro-active features.

With continued reference to FIG. 4, the light extracting opticalelements 440 a, 438 a, 436 a, 434 a, 432 a may be configured to bothredirect light out of their respective waveguides and to output thislight with the appropriate amount of divergence or collimation for aparticular depth plane associated with the waveguide. As a result,waveguides having different associated depth planes may have differentconfigurations of light extracting optical elements, which output lightwith a different amount of divergence depending on the associated depthplane. In some embodiments, as discussed herein, the light extractingoptical elements 440 a, 438 a, 436 a, 434 a, 432 a may be volumetric orsurface features, which may be configured to output light at specificangles. For example, the light extracting optical elements 440 a, 438 a,436 a, 434 a, 432 a may be volume holograms, surface holograms, and/ordiffraction gratings. Light extracting optical elements, such asdiffraction gratings, are described in U.S. Patent Publication No.2015/0178939, published Jun. 25, 2015, which is incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

In some embodiments, the light extracting optical elements 440 a, 438 a,436 a, 434 a, 432 a are diffractive features that form a diffractionpattern, or “diffractive optical element” (also referred to herein as a“DOE”). Preferably, the DOE has a relatively low diffraction efficiencyso that only a portion of the light of the beam is deflected away towardthe eye 410 with each intersection of the DOE, while the rest continuesto move through a waveguide via total internal reflection. The lightcarrying the image information can thus be divided into a number ofrelated exit beams that exit the waveguide at a multiplicity oflocations and the result is a fairly uniform pattern of exit emissiontoward the eye 304 for this particular collimated beam bouncing aroundwithin a waveguide.

In some embodiments, one or more DOEs may be switchable between “on”state in which they actively diffract, and “off” state in which they donot significantly diffract. For instance, a switchable DOE may comprisea layer of polymer dispersed liquid crystal, in which microdropletscomprise a diffraction pattern in a host medium, and the refractiveindex of the microdroplets can be switched to substantially match therefractive index of the host material (in which case the pattern doesnot appreciably diffract incident light) or the microdroplet can beswitched to an index that does not match that of the host medium (inwhich case the pattern actively diffracts incident light).

In some embodiments, the number and distribution of depth planes ordepth of field may be varied dynamically based on the pupil sizes ororientations of the eyes of the viewer. Depth of field may changeinversely with a viewer's pupil size. As a result, as the sizes of thepupils of the viewer's eyes decrease, the depth of field increases suchthat one plane that is not discernible because the location of thatplane is beyond the depth of focus of the eye may become discernible andappear more in focus with reduction of pupil size and commensurate withthe increase in depth of field. Likewise, the number of spaced apartdepth planes used to present different images to the viewer may bedecreased with the decreased pupil size. For example, a viewer may notbe able to clearly perceive the details of both a first depth plane anda second depth plane at one pupil size without adjusting theaccommodation of the eye away from one depth plane and to the otherdepth plane. These two depth planes may, however, be sufficiently infocus at the same time to the user at another pupil size withoutchanging accommodation.

In some embodiments, the display system may vary the number ofwaveguides receiving image information based upon determinations ofpupil size or orientation, or upon receiving electrical signalsindicative of particular pupil size or orientation. For example, if theuser's eyes are unable to distinguish between two depth planesassociated with two waveguides, then the controller 460 may beconfigured or programmed to cease providing image information to one ofthese waveguides. Advantageously, this may reduce the processing burdenon the system, thereby increasing the responsiveness of the system. Inembodiments in which the DOEs for a waveguide are switchable between theon and off states, the DOEs may be switched to the off state when thewaveguide does receive image information.

In some embodiments, it may be desirable to have an exit beam meet thecondition of having a diameter that is less than the diameter of the eyeof a viewer. However, meeting this condition may be challenging in viewof the variability in size of the viewer's pupils. In some embodiments,this condition is met over a wide range of pupil sizes by varying thesize of the exit beam in response to determinations of the size of theviewer's pupil. For example, as the pupil size decreases, the size ofthe exit beam may also decrease. In some embodiments, the exit beam sizemay be varied using a variable aperture.

The wearable system 400 can include an outward-facing imaging system 464(e.g., a digital camera) that images a portion of the world 470. Thisportion of the world 470 may be referred to as the field of view (FOV)and the imaging system 464 is sometimes referred to as an FOV camera.The entire region available for viewing or imaging by a viewer may bereferred to as the field of regard (FOR). The FOR may include 4πsteradians of solid angle surrounding the wearable system 400 becausethe wearer can move his body, head, or eyes to perceive substantiallyany direction in space. In other contexts, the wearer's movements may bemore constricted, and accordingly the wearer's FOR may subtend a smallersolid angle. Images obtained from the outward-facing imaging system 464can be used to track gestures made by the user (e.g., hand or fingergestures), detect objects in the world 470 in front of the user, and soforth.

The wearable system 400 can also include an inward-facing imaging system466 (e.g., a digital camera), which observes the movements of the user,such as the eye movements and the facial movements. The inward-facingimaging system 466 may be used to capture images of the eye 410 todetermine the size and/or orientation of the pupil of the eye 304. Theinward-facing imaging system 466 can be used to obtain images for use indetermining the direction the user is looking (e.g., eye pose) or forbiometric identification of the user (e.g., via iris identification). Insome embodiments, at least one camera may be utilized for each eye, toseparately determine the pupil size or eye pose of each eyeindependently, thereby allowing the presentation of image information toeach eye to be dynamically tailored to that eye. In some otherembodiments, the pupil diameter or orientation of only a single eye 410(e.g., using only a single camera per pair of eyes) is determined andassumed to be similar for both eyes of the user. The images obtained bythe inward-facing imaging system 466 may be analyzed to determine theuser's eye pose or mood, which can be used by the wearable system 400 todecide which audio or visual content should be presented to the user.The wearable system 400 may also determine head pose (e.g., headposition or head orientation) using sensors such as IMUs,accelerometers, gyroscopes, etc.

The wearable system 400 can include a user input device 466 by which theuser can input commands to the controller 460 to interact with thewearable system 400. For example, the user input device 466 can includea trackpad, a touchscreen, a joystick, a multiple degree-of-freedom(DOF) controller, a capacitive sensing device, a game controller, akeyboard, a mouse, a directional pad (D-pad), a wand, a haptic device, atotem (e.g., functioning as a virtual user input device), and so forth.A multi-DOF controller can sense user input in some or all possibletranslations (e.g., left/right, forward/backward, or up/down) orrotations (e.g., yaw, pitch, or roll) of the controller. A multi-DOFcontroller which supports the translation movements may be referred toas a 3DOF while a multi-DOF controller which supports the translationsand rotations may be referred to as 6DOF. In some cases, the user mayuse a finger (e.g., a thumb) to press or swipe on a touch-sensitiveinput device to provide input to the wearable system 400 (e.g., toprovide user input to a user interface provided by the wearable system400). The user input device 466 may be held by the user's hand duringthe use of the wearable system 400. The user input device 466 can be inwired or wireless communication with the wearable system 400.

FIG. 5 shows an example of exit beams outputted by a waveguide. Onewaveguide is illustrated, but it will be appreciated that otherwaveguides in the waveguide assembly 480 may function similarly, wherethe waveguide assembly 480 includes multiple waveguides. Light 520 isinjected into the waveguide 432 b at the input edge 432 c of thewaveguide 432 b and propagates within the waveguide 432 b by TIR. Atpoints where the light 520 impinges on the DOE 432 a, a portion of thelight exits the waveguide as exit beams 510. The exit beams 510 areillustrated as substantially parallel but they may also be redirected topropagate to the eye 410 at an angle (e.g., forming divergent exitbeams), depending on the depth plane associated with the waveguide 432b. It will be appreciated that substantially parallel exit beams may beindicative of a waveguide with light extracting optical elements thatoutcouple light to form images that appear to be set on a depth plane ata large distance (e.g., optical infinity) from the eye 410. Otherwaveguides or other sets of light extracting optical elements may outputan exit beam pattern that is more divergent, which would require the eye410 to accommodate to a closer distance to bring it into focus on theretina and would be interpreted by the brain as light from a distancecloser to the eye 410 than optical infinity.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an optical system including awaveguide apparatus, an optical coupler subsystem to optically couplelight to or from the waveguide apparatus, and a control subsystem, usedin the generation of a multi-focal volumetric display, image, or lightfield. The optical system can include a waveguide apparatus, an opticalcoupler subsystem to optically couple light to or from the waveguideapparatus, and a control subsystem. The optical system can be used togenerate a multi-focal volumetric, image, or light field. The opticalsystem can include one or more primary planar waveguides 632 a (only oneis shown in FIG. 6) and one or more DOEs 632 b associated with each ofat least some of the primary waveguides 632 a. The planar waveguides 632b can be similar to the waveguides 432 b, 434 b, 436 b, 438 b, 440 bdiscussed with reference to FIG. 4. The optical system may employ adistribution waveguide apparatus to relay light along a first axis(vertical or Y-axis in view of FIG. 6), and expand the light's effectiveexit pupil along the first axis (e.g., Y-axis). The distributionwaveguide apparatus may, for example, include a distribution planarwaveguide 622 b and at least one DOE 622 a (illustrated by doubledash-dot line) associated with the distribution planar waveguide 622 b.The distribution planar waveguide 622 b may be similar or identical inat least some respects to the primary planar waveguide 632 b, having adifferent orientation therefrom. Likewise, at least one DOE 622 a may besimilar or identical in at least some respects to the DOE 632 a. Forexample, the distribution planar waveguide 622 b or DOE 622 a may becomprised of the same materials as the primary planar waveguide 632 b orDOE 632 a, respectively. Embodiments of the optical display system 600shown in FIG. 6 can be integrated into the wearable system 200 shown inFIG. 2.

The relayed and exit-pupil expanded light may be optically coupled fromthe distribution waveguide apparatus into the one or more primary planarwaveguides 632 b. The primary planar waveguide 632 b can relay lightalong a second axis, preferably orthogonal to first axis (e.g.,horizontal or X-axis in view of FIG. 6). Notably, the second axis can bea non-orthogonal axis to the first axis. The primary planar waveguide632 b expands the light's effective exit pupil along that second axis(e.g., X-axis). For example, the distribution planar waveguide 622 b canrelay and expand light along the vertical or Y-axis, and pass that lightto the primary planar waveguide 632 b which can relay and expand lightalong the horizontal or X-axis.

The optical system may include one or more sources of colored light(e.g., red, green, and blue laser light) 610 which may be opticallycoupled into a proximal end of a single mode optical fiber 640. A distalend of the optical fiber 640 may be threaded or received through ahollow tube 642 of piezoelectric material. The distal end protrudes fromthe tube 642 as fixed-free flexible cantilever 644. The piezoelectrictube 642 can be associated with four quadrant electrodes (notillustrated). The electrodes may, for example, be plated on the outside,outer surface or outer periphery or diameter of the tube 642. A coreelectrode (not illustrated) may also be located in a core, center, innerperiphery or inner diameter of the tube 642.

Drive electronics 650, for example electrically coupled via wires 660,drive opposing pairs of electrodes to bend the piezoelectric tube 642 intwo axes independently. The protruding distal tip of the optical fiber644 has mechanical modes of resonance. The frequencies of resonance candepend upon a diameter, length, and material properties of the opticalfiber 644. By vibrating the piezoelectric tube 642 near a first mode ofmechanical resonance of the fiber cantilever 644, the fiber cantilever644 can be caused to vibrate, and can sweep through large deflections.

By stimulating resonant vibration in two axes, the tip of the fibercantilever 644 is scanned biaxially in an area filling two-dimensional(2D) scan. By modulating an intensity of light source(s) 610 insynchrony with the scan of the fiber cantilever 644, light emerging fromthe fiber cantilever 644 can form an image. Descriptions of such a setup are provided in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2014/0003762, which isincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

A component of an optical coupler subsystem can collimate the lightemerging from the scanning fiber cantilever 644. The collimated lightcan be reflected by mirrored surface 648 into the narrow distributionplanar waveguide 622 b which contains the at least one diffractiveoptical element (DOE) 622 a. The collimated light can propagatevertically (relative to the view of FIG. 6) along the distributionplanar waveguide 622 b by TIR, and in doing so repeatedly intersectswith the DOE 622 a. The DOE 622 a preferably has a low diffractionefficiency. This can cause a fraction (e.g., 10%) of the light to bediffracted toward an edge of the larger primary planar waveguide 632 bat each point of intersection with the DOE 622 a, and a fraction of thelight to continue on its original trajectory down the length of thedistribution planar waveguide 622 b via TIR.

At each point of intersection with the DOE 622 a, additional light canbe diffracted toward the entrance of the primary waveguide 632 b. Bydividing the incoming light into multiple outcoupled sets, the exitpupil of the light can be expanded vertically by the DOE 4 in thedistribution planar waveguide 622 b. This vertically expanded lightcoupled out of distribution planar waveguide 622 b can enter the edge ofthe primary planar waveguide 632 b.

Light entering primary waveguide 632 b can propagate horizontally(relative to the view of FIG. 6) along the primary waveguide 632 b viaTIR. As the light intersects with DOE 632 a at multiple points as itpropagates horizontally along at least a portion of the length of theprimary waveguide 632 b via TIR. The DOE 632 a may advantageously bedesigned or configured to have a phase profile that is a summation of alinear diffraction pattern and a radially symmetric diffractive pattern,to produce both deflection and focusing of the light. The DOE 632 a mayadvantageously have a low diffraction efficiency (e.g., 10%), so thatonly a portion of the light of the beam is deflected toward the eye ofthe view with each intersection of the DOE 632 a while the rest of thelight continues to propagate through the primary waveguide 632 b viaTIR.

At each point of intersection between the propagating light and the DOE632 a, a fraction of the light is diffracted toward the adjacent face ofthe primary waveguide 632 b allowing the light to escape the TIR, andemerge from the face of the primary waveguide 632 b. In someembodiments, the radially symmetric diffraction pattern of the DOE 632 aadditionally imparts a focus level to the diffracted light, both shapingthe light wavefront (e.g., imparting a curvature) of the individual beamas well as steering the beam at an angle that matches the designed focuslevel.

Accordingly, these different pathways can cause the light to be coupledout of the primary planar waveguide 632 b by a multiplicity of DOEs 632a at different angles, focus levels, and/or yielding different fillpatterns at the exit pupil. Different fill patterns at the exit pupilcan be beneficially used to create a light field display with multipledepth planes. Each layer in the waveguide assembly or a set of layers(e.g., 3 layers) in the stack may be employed to generate a respectivecolor (e.g., red, blue, green). Thus, for example, a first set of threeadjacent layers may be employed to respectively produce red, blue andgreen light at a first focal depth. A second set of three adjacentlayers may be employed to respectively produce red, blue and green lightat a second focal depth. Multiple sets may be employed to generate afull 3D or 4D color image light field with various focal depths.

Other Components of the Wearable System

In many implementations, the wearable system may include othercomponents in addition or in alternative to the components of thewearable system described above. The wearable system may, for example,include one or more haptic devices or components. The haptic devices orcomponents may be operable to provide a tactile sensation to a user. Forexample, the haptic devices or components may provide a tactilesensation of pressure or texture when touching virtual content (e.g.,virtual objects, virtual tools, other virtual constructs). The tactilesensation may replicate a feel of a physical object which a virtualobject represents, or may replicate a feel of an imagined object orcharacter (e.g., a dragon) which the virtual content represents. In someimplementations, haptic devices or components may be worn by the user(e.g., a user wearable glove). In some implementations, haptic devicesor components may be held by the user.

The wearable system may, for example, include one or more physicalobjects which are manipulable by the user to allow input or interactionwith the wearable system. These physical objects may be referred toherein as totems. Some totems may take the form of inanimate objects,such as for example, a piece of metal or plastic, a wall, a surface oftable. In certain implementations, the totems may not actually have anyphysical input structures (e.g., keys, triggers, joystick, trackball,rocker switch). Instead, the totem may simply provide a physicalsurface, and the wearable system may render a user interface so as toappear to a user to be on one or more surfaces of the totem. Forexample, the wearable system may render an image of a computer keyboardand trackpad to appear to reside on one or more surfaces of a totem. Forexample, the wearable system may render a virtual computer keyboard andvirtual trackpad to appear on a surface of a thin rectangular plate ofaluminum which serves as a totem. The rectangular plate does not itselfhave any physical keys or trackpad or sensors. However, the wearablesystem may detect user manipulation or interaction or touches with therectangular plate as selections or inputs made via the virtual keyboardor virtual trackpad. The user input device 466 (shown in FIG. 4) may bean embodiment of a totem, which may include a trackpad, a touchpad, atrigger, a joystick, a trackball, a rocker or virtual switch, a mouse, akeyboard, a multi-degree-of-freedom controller, or another physicalinput device. A user may use the totem, alone or in combination withposes, to interact with the wearable system or other users.

Examples of haptic devices and totems usable with the wearable devices,HMD, and display systems of the present disclosure are described in U.S.Patent Publication No. 2015/0016777, which is incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety.

Example Wearable Systems, Environments, and Interfaces

A wearable system may employ various mapping related techniques in orderto achieve high depth of field in the rendered light fields. In mappingout the virtual world, it is advantageous to know all the features andpoints in the real world to accurately portray virtual objects inrelation to the real world. To this end, FOV images captured from usersof the wearable system can be added to a world model by including newpictures that convey information about various points and features ofthe real world. For example, the wearable system can collect a set ofmap points (such as 2D points or 3D points) and find new map points torender a more accurate version of the world model. The world model of afirst user can be communicated (e.g., over a network such as a cloudnetwork) to a second user so that the second user can experience theworld surrounding the first user.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an example of an MR environment 700. The MRenvironment 700 may be configured to receive input (e.g., visual input702 from the user's wearable system, stationary input 704 such as roomcameras, sensory input 706 from various sensors, gestures, totems, eyetracking, user input from the user input device 466 etc.) from one ormore user wearable systems (e.g., wearable system 200 or display system220) or stationary room systems (e.g., room cameras, etc.). The wearablesystems can use various sensors (e.g., accelerometers, gyroscopes,temperature sensors, movement sensors, depth sensors, GPS sensors,inward-facing imaging system, outward-facing imaging system, etc.) todetermine the location and various other attributes of the environmentof the user. This information may further be supplemented withinformation from stationary cameras in the room that may provide imagesor various cues from a different point of view. The image data acquiredby the cameras (such as the room cameras and/or the cameras of theoutward-facing imaging system) may be reduced to a set of mappingpoints.

One or more object recognizers 708 can crawl through the received data(e.g., the collection of points) and recognize or map points, tagimages, attach semantic information to objects with the help of a mapdatabase 710. The map database 710 may comprise various points collectedover time and their corresponding objects. The various devices and themap database can be connected to each other through a network (e.g.,LAN, WAN, etc.) to access the cloud.

Based on this information and collection of points in the map database,the object recognizers 708 a to 708 n may recognize objects in anenvironment. For example, the object recognizers can recognize faces,persons, windows, walls, user input devices, televisions, other objectsin the user's environment, etc. One or more object recognizers may bespecialized for object with certain characteristics. For example, theobject recognizer 708 a may be used to recognizer faces, while anotherobject recognizer may be used recognize totems.

The object recognitions may be performed using a variety of computervision techniques. For example, the wearable system can analyze theimages acquired by the outward-facing imaging system 464 (shown in FIG.4) to perform scene reconstruction, event detection, video tracking,object recognition, object pose estimation, learning, indexing, motionestimation, or image restoration, etc. One or more computer visionalgorithms may be used to perform these tasks. Non-limiting examples ofcomputer vision algorithms include: Scale-invariant feature transform(SIFT), speeded up robust features (SURF), oriented FAST and rotatedBRIEF (ORB), binary robust invariant scalable keypoints (BRISK), fastretina keypoint (FREAK), Viola-Jones algorithm, Eigenfaces approach,Lucas-Kanade algorithm, Horn-Schunk algorithm, Mean-shift algorithm,visual simultaneous location and mapping (vSLAM) techniques, asequential Bayesian estimator (e.g., Kalman filter, extended Kalmanfilter, etc.), bundle adjustment, Adaptive thresholding (and otherthresholding techniques), Iterative Closest Point (ICP), Semi GlobalMatching (SGM), Semi Global Block Matching (SGBM), Feature PointHistograms, various machine learning algorithms (such as e.g., supportvector machine, k-nearest neighbors algorithm, Naive Bayes, neuralnetwork (including convolutional or deep neural networks), or othersupervised/unsupervised models, etc.), and so forth.

The object recognitions can additionally or alternatively be performedby a variety of machine learning algorithms. Once trained, the machinelearning algorithm can be stored by the HMD. Some examples of machinelearning algorithms can include supervised or non-supervised machinelearning algorithms, including regression algorithms (such as, forexample, Ordinary Least Squares Regression), instance-based algorithms(such as, for example, Learning Vector Quantization), decision treealgorithms (such as, for example, classification and regression trees),Bayesian algorithms (such as, for example, Naive Bayes), clusteringalgorithms (such as, for example, k-means clustering), association rulelearning algorithms (such as, for example, a-priori algorithms),artificial neural network algorithms (such as, for example, Perceptron),deep learning algorithms (such as, for example, Deep Boltzmann Machine,or deep neural network), dimensionality reduction algorithms (such as,for example, Principal Component Analysis), ensemble algorithms (suchas, for example, Stacked Generalization), and/or other machine learningalgorithms. In some embodiments, individual models can be customized forindividual data sets. For example, the wearable device can generate orstore a base model. The base model may be used as a starting point togenerate additional models specific to a data type (e.g., a particularuser in the telepresence session), a data set (e.g., a set of additionalimages obtained of the user in the telepresence session), conditionalsituations, or other variations. In some embodiments, the wearable HMDcan be configured to utilize a plurality of techniques to generatemodels for analysis of the aggregated data. Other techniques may includeusing pre-defined thresholds or data values.

Based on this information and collection of points in the map database,the object recognizers 708 a to 708 n may recognize objects andsupplement objects with semantic information to give life to theobjects. For example, if the object recognizer recognizes a set ofpoints to be a door, the system may attach some semantic information(e.g., the door has a hinge and has a 90 degree movement about thehinge). If the object recognizer recognizes a set of points to be amirror, the system may attach semantic information that the mirror has areflective surface that can reflect images of objects in the room. Overtime the map database grows as the system (which may reside locally ormay be accessible through a wireless network) accumulates more data fromthe world. Once the objects are recognized, the information may betransmitted to one or more wearable systems. For example, the MRenvironment 700 may include information about a scene happening inCalifornia. The environment 700 may be transmitted to one or more usersin New York. Based on data received from an FOV camera and other inputs,the object recognizers and other software components can map the pointscollected from the various images, recognize objects etc., such that thescene may be accurately “passed over” to a second user, who may be in adifferent part of the world. The environment 700 may also use atopological map for localization purposes.

FIG. 8 is a process flow diagram of an example of a method 800 ofrendering virtual content in relation to recognized objects. The method800 describes how a virtual scene may be represented to a user of thewearable system. The user may be geographically remote from the scene.For example, the user may be New York, but may want to view a scene thatis presently going on in California, or may want to go on a walk with afriend who resides in California.

At block 810, the wearable system may receive input from the user andother users regarding the environment of the user. This may be achievedthrough various input devices, and knowledge already possessed in themap database. The user's FOV camera, sensors, GPS, eye tracking, etc.,convey information to the system at block 810. The system may determinesparse points based on this information at block 820. The sparse pointsmay be used in determining pose data (e.g., head pose, eye pose, bodypose, or hand gestures) that can be used in displaying and understandingthe orientation and position of various objects in the user'ssurroundings. The object recognizers 708 a-708 n may crawl through thesecollected points and recognize one or more objects using a map databaseat block 830. This information may then be conveyed to the user'sindividual wearable system at block 840, and the desired virtual scenemay be accordingly displayed to the user at block 850. For example, thedesired virtual scene (e.g., user in CA) may be displayed at theappropriate orientation, position, etc., in relation to the variousobjects and other surroundings of the user in New York.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of another example of a wearable system. Inthis example, the wearable system 900 comprises a map, which may includemap data for the world. The map may partly reside locally on thewearable system, and may partly reside at networked storage locationsaccessible by wired or wireless network (e.g., in a cloud system). Apose process 910 may be executed on the wearable computing architecture(e.g., processing module 260 or controller 460) and utilize data fromthe map to determine position and orientation of the wearable computinghardware or user. Pose data may be computed from data collected on thefly as the user is experiencing the system and operating in the world.The data may comprise images, data from sensors (such as inertialmeasurement units, which generally comprise accelerometer and gyroscopecomponents) and surface information pertinent to objects in the real orvirtual environment.

A sparse point representation may be the output of a simultaneouslocalization and mapping (SLAM or V-SLAM, referring to a configurationwherein the input is images/visual only) process. The system can beconfigured to not only find out where in the world the variouscomponents are, but what the world is made of. Pose may be a buildingblock that achieves many goals, including populating the map and usingthe data from the map.

In one embodiment, a sparse point position may not be completelyadequate on its own, and further information may be needed to produce amultifocal AR, VR, or MR experience. Dense representations, generallyreferring to depth map information, may be utilized to fill this gap atleast in part. Such information may be computed from a process referredto as Stereo 940, wherein depth information is determined using atechnique such as triangulation or time-of-flight sensing. Imageinformation and active patterns (such as infrared patterns created usingactive projectors) may serve as input to the Stereo process 940. Asignificant amount of depth map information may be fused together, andsome of this may be summarized with a surface representation. Forexample, mathematically definable surfaces may be efficient (e.g.,relative to a large point cloud) and digestible inputs to otherprocessing devices like game engines. Thus, the output of the stereoprocess (e.g., a depth map) 940 may be combined in the fusion process930. Pose may be an input to this fusion process 930 as well, and theoutput of fusion 930 becomes an input to populating the map process 920.Sub-surfaces may connect with each other, such as in topographicalmapping, to form larger surfaces, and the map becomes a large hybrid ofpoints and surfaces.

To resolve various aspects in a mixed reality process 960, variousinputs may be utilized. For example, in the embodiment depicted in FIG.9, Game parameters may be inputs to determine that the user of thesystem is playing a monster battling game with one or more monsters atvarious locations, monsters dying or running away under variousconditions (such as if the user shoots the monster), walls or otherobjects at various locations, and the like. The world map may includeinformation regarding where such objects are relative to each other, tobe another valuable input to mixed reality. Pose relative to the worldbecomes an input as well and plays a key role to almost any interactivesystem.

Controls or inputs from the user are another input to the wearablesystem 900. As described herein, user inputs can include visual input,gestures, totems, audio input, sensory input, etc. In order to movearound or play a game, for example, the user may need to instruct thewearable system 900 regarding what he or she wants to do. Beyond justmoving oneself in space, there are various forms of user controls thatmay be utilized. In one embodiment, a totem (e.g. a user input device),or an object such as a toy gun may be held by the user and tracked bythe system. The system preferably will be configured to know that theuser is holding the item and understand what kind of interaction theuser is having with the item (e.g., if the totem or object is a gun, thesystem may be configured to understand location and orientation, as wellas whether the user is clicking a trigger or other sensed button orelement which may be equipped with a sensor, such as an IMU, which mayassist in determining what is going on, even when such activity is notwithin the field of view of any of the cameras.)

Hand gesture tracking or recognition may also provide input information.The wearable system 900 may be configured to track and interpret handgestures for button presses, for gesturing left or right, stop, grab,hold, etc. For example, in one configuration, the user may want to flipthrough emails or a calendar in a non-gaming environment, or do a “fistbump” with another person or player. The wearable system 900 may beconfigured to leverage a minimum amount of hand gesture, which may ormay not be dynamic. For example, the gestures may be simple staticgestures like open hand for stop, thumbs up for ok, thumbs down for notok; or a hand flip right, or left, or up/down for directional commands.

Eye tracking is another input (e.g., tracking where the user is lookingto control the display technology to render at a specific depth orrange). In one embodiment, vergence of the eyes may be determined usingtriangulation, and then using a vergence/accommodation model developedfor that particular person, accommodation may be determined.

With regard to the camera systems, the example wearable system 900 shownin FIG. 9 can include three pairs of cameras: a relative wide FOV orpassive SLAM pair of cameras arranged to the sides of the user's face, adifferent pair of cameras oriented in front of the user to handle thestereo imaging process 940 and also to capture hand gestures andtotem/object tracking in front of the user's face. The FOV cameras andthe pair of cameras for the stereo process 940 may be a part of theoutward-facing imaging system 464 (shown in FIG. 4). The wearable system900 can include eye tracking cameras (which may be a part of aninward-facing imaging system 462 shown in FIG. 4) oriented toward theeyes of the user in order to triangulate eye vectors and otherinformation. The wearable system 900 may also comprise one or moretextured light projectors (such as infrared (IR) projectors) to injecttexture into a scene.

FIG. 10 is a process flow diagram of an example of a method 1000 fordetermining user input to a wearable system. In this example, the usermay interact with a totem. The user may have multiple totems. Forexample, the user may have designated one totem for a social mediaapplication, another totem for playing games, etc. At block 1010, thewearable system may detect a motion of a totem. The movement of thetotem may be recognized through the outward facing system or may bedetected through sensors (e.g., haptic glove, image sensors, handtracking devices, eye-tracking cameras, head as, etc.).

Based at least partly on the detected gesture, eye pose, head pose, orinput through the totem, the wearable system detects a position,orientation, and/or movement of the totem (or the user's eyes or head orgestures) with respect to a reference frame, at block 1020. Thereference frame may be a set of map points based on which the wearablesystem translates the movement of the totem (or the user) to an actionor command. At block 1030, the user's interaction with the totem ismapped. Based on the mapping of the user interaction with respect to thereference frame 1020, the system determines the user input at block1040.

For example, the user may move a totem or physical object back and forthto signify turning a virtual page and moving on to a next page or movingfrom one user interface (UI) display screen to another UI screen. Asanother example, the user may move their head or eyes to look atdifferent real or virtual objects in the user's FOR. If the user's gazeat a particular real or virtual object is longer than a threshold time,the real or virtual object may be selected as the user input. In someimplementations, the vergence of the user's eyes can be tracked and anaccommodation/vergence model can be used to determine the accommodationstate of the user's eyes, which provides information on a depth plane onwhich the user is focusing. In some implementations, the wearable systemcan use ray casting techniques to determine which real or virtualobjects are along the direction of the user's head pose or eye pose. Invarious implementations, the ray casting techniques can include castingthin, pencil rays with substantially little transverse width or castingrays with substantial transverse width (e.g., cones or frustums).

The user interface may be projected by the display system as describedherein (such as the display 220 in FIG. 2). It may also be displayedusing a variety of other techniques such as one or more projectors. Theprojectors may project images onto a physical object such as a canvas ora globe. Interactions with user interface may be tracked using one ormore cameras external to the system or part of the system (such as,e.g., using the inward-facing imaging system 462 or the outward-facingimaging system 464).

FIG. 11 is a process flow diagram of an example of a method 1100 forinteracting with a virtual user interface. The method 1100 may beperformed by the wearable system described herein.

At block 1110, the wearable system may identify a particular UI. Thetype of UI may be predetermined by the user. The wearable system mayidentify that a particular UI needs to be populated based on a userinput (e.g., gesture, visual data, audio data, sensory data, directcommand, etc.). At block 1120, the wearable system may generate data forthe virtual UI. For example, data associated with the confines, generalstructure, shape of the UI etc., may be generated. In addition, thewearable system may determine map coordinates of the user's physicallocation so that the wearable system can display the UI in relation tothe user's physical location. For example, if the UI is body centric,the wearable system may determine the coordinates of the user's physicalstance, head pose, or eye pose such that a ring UI can be displayedaround the user or a planar UI can be displayed on a wall or in front ofthe user. If the UI is hand centric, the map coordinates of the user'shands may be determined. These map points may be derived through datareceived through the FOV cameras, sensory input, or any other type ofcollected data.

At block 1130, the wearable system may send the data to the display fromthe cloud or the data may be sent from a local database to the displaycomponents. At block 1140, the UI is displayed to the user based on thesent data. For example, a light field display can project the virtual UIinto one or both of the user's eyes. Once the virtual UI has beencreated, the wearable system may simply wait for a command from the userto generate more virtual content on the virtual UI at block 1150. Forexample, the UI may be a body centric ring around the user's body. Thewearable system may then wait for the command (a gesture, a head or eyemovement, input from a user input device, etc.), and if it is recognized(block 1160), virtual content associated with the command may bedisplayed to the user (block 1170). As an example, the wearable systemmay wait for user's hand gestures before mixing multiple steam tracks.

Additional examples of wearable systems, UIs, and user experiences (UX)are described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2015/0016777, which isincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Overview of User Interactions Based on Contextual Information

The wearable system can support various user interactions with objectsin the FOR based on contextual information. For example, the wearablesystem can adjust the size of the aperture of a cone with a userinteracts with objects using cone casting. As another example, thewearable system can adjust the amount of movement of virtual objectsassociated with an actuation of a user input device based on thecontextual information. Detailed examples of these interactions areprovided below.

Example Objects

A user's FOR can contain a group of objects which can be perceived bythe user via the wearable system. The objects within the user's FOR maybe virtual and/or physical objects. The virtual objects may includeoperating system objects such as e.g., a recycle bin for deleted files,a terminal for inputting commands, a file manager for accessing files ordirectories, an icon, a menu, an application for audio or videostreaming, a notification from an operating system, and so on. Thevirtual objects may also include objects in an application such as e.g.,avatars, virtual objects in games, graphics or images, etc. Some virtualobjects can be both an operating system object and an object in anapplication. In some embodiments, the wearable system can add virtualelements to the existing physical objects. For example, the wearablesystem may add a virtual menu associated with a television in the room,where the virtual menu may give the user the option to turn on or changethe channels of the television using the wearable system.

The objects in the user's FOR can be part of a world map as describedwith reference to FIG. 9. Data associated with objects (e.g. location,semantic information, properties, etc.) can be stored in a variety ofdata structures such as, e.g., arrays, lists, trees, hashes, graphs, andso on. The index of each stored object, wherein applicable, may bedetermined, for example, by the location of the object. For example, thedata structure may index the objects by a single coordinate such as theobject's distance from a fiducial position (e.g., how far to the left(or right) of the fiducial position, how far from the top (or bottom) ofthe fiducial position, or how far depth-wise from the fiducialposition). In some implementations, the wearable system comprises alight field display that is capable of displaying virtual objects atdifferent depth planes relative to the user. The interactable objectscan be organized into multiple arrays located at different fixed depthplanes.

A user can interact with a subset of the objects in the user's FOR. Thissubset of objects may sometimes be referred to as interactable objects.The user can interact with objects using a variety of techniques, suchas e.g. by selecting the objects, by moving the objects, by opening amenu or toolbar associated with an object, or by choosing a new set ofinteractable objects. The user may interact with the interactableobjects by using hand gestures to actuate a user input device (see e.g.user input device 466 in FIG. 4), such as, e.g., clicking on a mouse,tapping on a touch pad, swiping on a touch screen, hovering over ortouching a capacitive button, pressing a key on a keyboard or a gamecontroller (e.g., a 5-way d-pad), pointing a joystick, wand, or totemtoward the object, pressing a button on a remote control, or otherinteractions with a user input device, etc. The user may also interactwith interactable objects using head, eye, or body pose, such as e.g.,gazing or pointing at an object for a period of time. These handgestures and poses of the user can cause the wearable system to initiatea selection event in which, for example, a user interface operation isperformed (a menu associated with the target interactable object isdisplayed, a gaming operation is performed on an avatar in a game,etc.).

Examples of Cone Casting

As described herein, a user can interact with objects in his environmentusing poses. For example, a user may look into a room and see tables,chairs, walls, and a virtual television display on one of the walls. Todetermine which objects the user is looking toward, the wearable systemmay use a cone casting technique that, described generally, projects aninvisible cone in the direction the user is looking and identifies anyobjects that intersect with the cone. The cone casting can involvecasting a single ray, having no lateral thickness, from an HMD (of thewearable system) toward physical or virtual objects. Cone casting with asingle ray may also be referred to as ray casting.

Ray casting can use a collision detection agent to trace along the rayand to identify if and where any objects intersect with the ray. Thewearable system can track the user's pose (e.g., body, head, or eyedirection) using inertial measurement units (e.g., accelerometers),eye-tracking cameras, etc., to determine the direction toward which theuser is looking. The wearable system can use the user's pose todetermine which direction to cast the ray. The ray casting techniquescan also be used in connection with user input devices 466 such as ahand-held, multiple degree of freedom (DOF) input device. For example, auser can actuate the multi-DOF input device to anchor the size and/orlength of the ray while the user moves around. As another example,rather than casting the ray from the HMD, the wearable system can castthe ray from the user input device.

In certain embodiments, rather than casting a ray with negligiblethickness, the wearable system can cast a cone having a non-negligibleaperture (transverse to a central ray 1224). FIG. 12A illustratesexamples of cone casting with non-negligible apertures. Cone casting cancast a conic (or other shape) volume 1220 with an adjustable aperture.The cone 1220 can be a geometric cone which has a proximal end 1228 aand a distal end 1228 b. The size of the aperture can correspond to thesize of the distal end 1228 b of the cone. For example, a large aperturemay correspond to a large surface area at a distal end 1228 b of thecone (e.g., the end that is away from the HMD, the user, or the userinput device). As another example, a large aperture can correspond to alarge diameter 1226 on the distal end 1228 b of the cone 1220 while asmall aperture can correspond to a small diameter 1226 on the distal end1228 b of the cone 1220. As described further with reference to FIG.12A, the proximal end 1228 a of the cone 1220 can have its origin atvarious positions, e.g., the center of the user's ARD (e.g., between theuser's eyes), a point on one of the user's limbs (e.g., a hand, such asa finger of the hand), a user input device or totem being held oroperated by the user (e.g., a toy weapon).

The central ray 1224 can represent the direction of the cone. Thedirection of the cone can correspond to the user's body pose (such ashead pose, hand gestures, etc.) or the user's direction of gaze (alsoreferred to as eye pose). The example 1206 in FIG. 12A illustrates conecasting with poses, where the wearable system can determine thedirection 1224 of the cone using the user's head pose or eye pose. Thisexample also illustrates a coordinate system for the head pose. A head1250 may have multiple degrees of freedom. As the head 1250 moves towarddifferent directions, the head pose will change relative to the naturalresting direction 1260. The coordinate system in FIG. 12A shows threeangular degrees of freedom (e.g. yaw, pitch, and roll) that can be usedfor measuring the head pose relative to the natural resting state 1260of the head. As illustrated in FIG. 12A, the head 1250 can tilt forwardand backward (e.g. pitching), turning left and right (e.g. yawing), andtilting side to side (e.g. rolling). In other implementations, othertechniques or angular representations for measuring head pose can beused, for example, any other type of Euler angle system. The wearablesystem may determine the user's head pose using IMUs. The inward-facingimaging system 462 (shown in FIG. 4) can be used to determine the user'seye pose.

The example 1204 shows another example of cone casting with poses, wherethe wearable system can determine the direction 1224 of the cone basedon a user's hand gestures. In this example, the proximal end 1228 a ofthe cone 1220 is at the tip of the user's finger 1214. As the userpoints his finger to another location, the position of cone 1220 (andthe central ray 1224) can be moved accordingly.

The direction of the cone can also correspond to a position ororientation of the user input device or an actuation of the user inputdevice. For example, the direction of the cone may be based on a userdrawn trajectory on a touch surface of the user input device. The usercan move his finger forward on the touch surface to indicate that thedirection of the cone is forward. The example 1202 illustrates anothercone casting with a user input device. In this example, the proximal end1228 a is located at the tip of a weapon-shaped user input device 1212.As the user input device 1212 is moved around, the cone 1220 and thecentral ray 1224 can also move together with the user input device 1212.

The direction of the cone can further be based on the position ororientation of the HMD. For example, the cone may be casted at a firstdirection when the HMD is tilted while at a second direction when theHMD is not tilted.

Initiation of a Cone Cast

The wearable system can initiate a cone cast when the user 1210 actuatesa user input device 466, for example by clicking on a mouse, tapping ona touch pad, swiping on a touch screen, hovering over or touching acapacitive button, pressing a key on a keyboard or a game controller(e.g., a 5-way d-pad), pointing a joystick, wand, or totem toward theobject, pressing a button on a remote control, or other interactionswith a user input device, etc.

The wearable system may also initiate a cone cast based on a pose of theuser 1210, such as, e.g., an extended period of gaze toward onedirection or a hand gesture (e.g., waving in front of the outward-facingimaging system 464). In some implementations, the wearable system canautomatically begin the cone cast event based on contextual information.For example, the wearable system may automatically begin the cone castwhen the user is at the main page of the AR display. In another example,the wearable system can determine relative positions of the objects in auser's direction of gaze. If the wearable system determines that theobjects are located relatively far apart from each other, the wearablesystem may automatically begin a cone cast so the user does not have tomove with precision to select an object in a group of the sparselylocated objects.

Example Properties of a Cone

The cone 1220 may have a variety of properties such as, e.g., size,shape, or color. These properties may be displayed to the user so thatthe cone is perceptible to the user. In some cases, portions of the cone1220 may be displayed (e.g., an end of the cone, a surface of the cone,a central ray of the cone, etc.). In other embodiments, the cone 1220may be a cuboid, polyhedron, pyramid, frustum, etc. The distal end 1228b of the cone can have any cross section, e.g., circular, oval,polygonal, or irregular.

In FIGS. 12A, 12B, and 12C, the cone 1220 can have a proximal end 1228 aand a distal end 1228 b. The proximal end 1228 a (also referred to aszero point of the central ray 1224) can be associated with the placefrom which cone cast originates. The proximal end 1228 a may be anchoredto a location in the 3D space, such that the virtual cone appears to beemitted from the location. The location may be a position on a user'shead (such as between the user's eyes), a user input device (such as,e.g., a 6 DOF hand-held controller or a 3DOF hand-held controller)functioning as a pointer; the tip of a finger (which can be detected bygesture recognition), and so on. For a hand-held controller, thelocation to which the proximal end 1228 a is anchored may depend on theform factor of the device. For example, in a weapon-shaped controller1212 (for use in a shooting game), the proximal end 1228 a may be at thetip of the muzzle of the controller 1212. In this example, the proximalend 1228 a of the cone can originate at the center of the barrel and thecone 1220 (or the central ray 1224) of the cone 1220 can project forwardsuch that the center of the cone cast would be concentric with thebarrel of the weapon-shaped controller 1212. The proximal end 1228 a ofthe cone can be anchored to any locations in the user's environment invarious embodiments.

Once the proximal end 1228 a of the cone 1220 is anchored to a location,the direction and movement of the cone 1220 may be based on the movementof the object associated with the location. For example, as describedwith reference to the example 1206, when the cone is anchored to theuser's head, the cone 1220 can move based on the user's head pose. Asanother example, in the example 1202, when the cone 1220 is anchored toa user input device, the cone 1220 can be moved based on the actuationof the user input device, such as, e.g., based on changes in theposition or orientation of the user input device.

The distal end 1228 b of the cone can extend until it reaches atermination threshold. The termination threshold may involve a collisionbetween the cone and a virtual or physical object (e.g., a wall) in theenvironment. The termination threshold may also be based on a thresholddistance. For example, the distal end 1228 b can keep extending awayfrom the proximal end 1228 a until the cone collides with an object oruntil the distance between the distal end 1228 b and the proximal end1228 a has reached a threshold distance (e.g., 20 centimeters, 1 meter,2 meters, 10 meters, etc.). In some embodiments, the cone can extendbeyond objects even though the collisions may happen between the coneand the objects. For example, the distal end 1228 b can extend throughreal world objects (such as tables, chairs, walls, etc.) and terminatewhen it hits a termination threshold. Assuming that the terminationthreshold is the wall of a virtual room which is located outside of theuser's current room, the wearable system can extend the cone beyond thecurrent room until it reaches a surface of the virtual room. In certainembodiments, world meshes can be used to define the extents of one ormore rooms. The wearable system can detect the existence of thetermination threshold by determining whether the virtual cone hasintersected with a portion of the world meshes. Advantageous, in someembodiments, the user can easily target virtual objects when the coneextends through real world objects. As an example, the HMD can present avirtual hole on the physical wall, through which the user can remotelyinteract with the virtual content in the other room even though the useris not physically in the other room. The HMD can determine objects inthe other room based on the world map described in FIG. 9.

The cone 1220 can have a depth. The depth of the cone 1220 may beexpressed by the distance between the proximal end 1228 a and the distalend 1228 b of the cone 1220. The depth of the cone can be adjustedautomatically by the wearable system, the user, or in combination. Forexample, when the wearable system determines that the objects arelocated far away from the user, the wearable system may increase thedepth of the cone. In some implementations, the depth of the cone may beanchored to a certain depth plane. For example, a user may choose toanchor the depth of the cone to a depth plane that is within 1 meter ofthe user. As a result, during a cone cast, the wearable system will notcapture objects that are outside of the 1 meter boundary. In certainembodiments, if the depth of the cone is anchored to a certain depthplane, the cone cast will only capture the objects at the depth plane.Accordingly, the cone cast will not capture objects that are closer tothe user or farther away from the user than the anchored depth plane. Inaddition to or in alternative to setting the depth of the cone 1220, thewearable system can set the distal end 1228 b to a depth plane such thatthe cone casting can allow user interactions with objects at the depthplane or less than the depth planes.

The wearable system can anchor the depth, the proximal end 1228 a, orthe distal end 1228 b of the cone upon detection of a certain handgesture, a body pose, a direction of gaze, an actuation of a user inputdevice, a voice command, or other techniques. In addition to or inalternative to the examples described herein, the anchoring location ofthe proximal end 1228 a, the distal end 1228 b, or the anchored depthcan be based contextual information, such as, e.g., the type of userinteractions, the functions of the object to which the cone is anchored,etc. For example, the proximal end 1228 a can be anchored to the centerof the user's head due to user usability and feel. As another example,when a user points at objects using hand gestures or a user inputdevice, the proximal end 1228 a can be anchored to the tip of the user'sfinger or the tip of the user input device to increase the accuracy ofthe direction that the user is point to.

The cone 1220 can have a color. The color of the cone 1220 may depend onthe user's preference, the user's environment (virtual or physical),etc. For example, if the user is in a virtual jungle which is full oftrees with green leaves, the wearable system may provide a dark graycone to increase contrast between the cone and the objects in the user'senvironment so that the user can have a better visibility for thelocation of the cone.

The wearable system can generate a visual representation of at least aportion of the cone for display to a user. The properties of the cone1220 may be reflected in the visual representation of the cone 1220. Thevisual representation of the cone 1220 can correspond to at least aportion of the cone, such as the aperture of the cone, the surface ofthe cone, the central ray, etc. For example, where the virtual cone is ageometric cone, visual representation of the virtual cone may include agrey geometric cone extending from a position in-between the user'seyes. As another example, the visual representation may include theportion of the cone that interacts with the real or virtual content.Assuming the virtual cone is the geometric cone, the visualrepresentation may include a circular pattern representing the base ofthe geometric cone because the base of the geometric cone can be used totarget and select a virtual object. In certain embodiments, the visualrepresentation is triggered based on a user interface operation. As anexample, the visual representation may be associated with an object'sstate. The wearable system can present the visual representation when anobject changes from a resting state or a hover state (where the objectcan be moved or selected). The wearable system can further hide thevisual representation when the object changes from the hover state to aselected state. In some implementations, when the objects are at thehover state, the wearable system can receive inputs from a user inputdevice (in addition to or in alternative to a cone cast) and can allow auser to select a virtual object using the user input device when theobjects are at the hover state.

In certain embodiments, the cone 1220 may be invisible to the user. Thewearable system may assign a focus indicator to one or more objectsindicating the direction and/or location of the cone. For example, thewearable system may assign a focus indicator to an object which is infront of the user and intersects with the user's direction of gaze. Thefocus indicator can comprise a halo, a color, a perceived size or depthchange (e.g., causing the target object to appear closer and/or largerwhen selected), a change in the shape of the cursor sprite graphic (e.g.the cursor is changed from a circle to an arrow), or other audible,tactile, or visual effects which draw the user's attention.

The cone 1220 can have an aperture transverse to the central ray 1224.In some embodiments, the central ray 1224 is invisible to the user 1210.The size of the aperture can correspond to the size of the distal end1228 b of the cone. For example, a large aperture can correspond to alarge diameter 1226 on the distal end 1228 b of the cone 1220 while asmall aperture can correspond to a small diameter 1226 on the distal end1228 b of the cone 1220.

As further described with reference to FIGS. 12B and 12C, the aperturecan be adjusted by the user, the wearable system, or in combination. Forexample, the user may adjust the aperture through user interfaceoperations such as selecting an option of the aperture shown on the ARdisplay. The user may also adjust the aperture by actuating the userinput device, for example, by scrolling the user input device, or bypressing a button to anchor the size of the aperture. In addition oralternative to inputs from user, the wearable system can update the sizeof the aperture based on one or more contextual factors described below.

Examples of Cone Casting with Dynamically Updated Aperture

Cone casting can be used to increase precision when interacting withobjects in the user's environment, especially when those objects arelocated at a distance where small amounts of movement from the usercould translate to large movements of the ray. Cone casting could alsobe used to decrease the amount of movement necessary from the user inorder to have the cone overlap one or more virtual objects. In someimplementations, the user can manually update the aperture of the coneand improve the speed and precision of selecting a target object, forexample, by using narrower cones when there are many objects and widercones when there are fewer objects. In other implementations, thewearable system can determine contextual factors associated with objectsin the user's environment and permit automatic cone updating,additionally or alternatively to manual updating, which canadvantageously make it easier for users to interact with objects in theenvironment since less user input is needed.

FIGS. 12B and 12C provides examples of cone casting on a group 1230 ofobjects (e.g. 1230 a, 1230 b, 1230 c, 1230 d, 1230 e) in the user's FOR1200 (at least some of these objects are in the user's FOV). The objectsmay be virtual and/or physical objects. During a cone cast, the wearablesystem can cast a cone (visible or invisible to the user) 1220 in adirection and identify any objects that intersect with the cone 1220.For example, in FIG. 12B, the object 1230 a (shown in bold) intersectswith the cone 1220. In FIG. 12C, the objects 1230 d and 1230 e (shown inbold) intersect with the cone 1220. The objects 1230 b, 1230 c (shown ingrey) are outside the cone 1220 and do not intersect with the cone 1220.

The wearable system can automatically update the aperture based oncontextual information. The contextual information may includeinformation related to the user's environment (e.g. light conditions ofthe user's virtual or physical environment), the user's preferences, theuser's physical conditions (e.g. whether a user is near-sighted),information associated with objects in the user's environment, such asthe type of the objects (e.g., physical or virtual) in the user'senvironment, or the layout of the objects (e.g., the density of theobjects, the locations and sizes of the objects, and so forth), thecharacteristics of the objects that a user is interacting with (e.g.,the functions of the objects, the type of user interface operationssupported by the objects, etc.), in combination or the like. The densitycan be measured in a variety of ways, e.g., a number of objects perprojected area, a number of objects per solid angle, etc. The densitymay be represented in other ways such as, e.g., a spacing betweenneighboring objects (with smaller spacing reflecting increased density).The wearable system can use location information of the objects todetermine the layout and density of the objects in a region. As shown inFIG. 12B, the wearable system may determine that the density of thegroup 1230 of the objects is high. The wearable system may accordinglyuse a cone 1220 with a smaller aperture. In FIG. 12C, because theobjects 1230 d and 1230 c are located relatively far away from eachother, the wearable system may use a cone 1220 with a larger aperture(as compared to the cone in FIG. 12B). Additional details on calculatingthe density of objects and adjusting the aperture size based on thedensity are further described in FIGS. 12D-12G.

The wearable system can dynamically update the aperture (e.g. size orshape) based on the user's pose. For example, the user may initiallylook at the group 1230 of the objects in FIG. 12B, but as the user turnshis head, the user may now look at the group of objects in FIG. 12C(where the objects are located sparsely relative to each other). As aresult, the wearable system may increase the size of the aperture (e.g.,as shown by the change in the aperture of the cone between FIG. 12B andFIG. 12C). Similarly, if the user turns his head back to look at thegroup 1230 of the objects in FIG. 12B, the wearable system may decreasethe size of the aperture.

Additionally or alternatively, the wearable system can update theaperture size based on user's preference. For example, if the userprefers to select a large group of items at the same time, the wearablesystem may increase the size of the aperture.

As another example of dynamically updating aperture based on contextualinformation, if a user is in a dark environment or if the user isnear-sighted, the wearable system may increase the size of the apertureso that it is easier for the user to capture objects. In certainimplementations, a first cone cast can capture multiple objects. Thewearable system can perform a second cone cast to further select atarget object among the captured objects. The wearable system can alsoallow a user to select the target object from the captured objects usingbody poses or a user input device. The object selection process can be arecursive process where one, two, three, or more cone casts may beperformed to select the target object.

Examples of Dynamically Updating Aperture Based on the Density ofObjects

As described with reference to FIGS. 12B and 12C, the aperture of thecone can be dynamically updated during a cone cast based on the densityof objects in the user's FOR. FIGS. 12D, 12E, 12F, and 12G describeexamples of dynamically adjusting an aperture based on the density ofobjects. FIG. 12D illustrates a contour map associated with density ofobjects in the user's FOR 1208. The virtual objects 1271 are representedby small textured dots. The density of the virtual objects is reflectedby the amount of contour lines in a given region. For example, thecounter lines are close to each other in the region 1272 whichrepresents that the density of objects in the region 1272 is high. Asanother example, the contour lines in the region 1278 are relativelysparse. Accordingly, the density of objects in the region 1278 is low.

The visual presentation the aperture 1270 is illustrated in shadedcircles in FIG. 12D. The visual representation in this example cancorrespond to the distal end 1228 b of the virtual cone 1220. Theaperture size can change based on the density of objects in a givenregion. For example, the aperture size can depend on the density ofobjects where the center of the circle falls. As illustrated in FIG.12D, when the aperture is at the region 1272, the size of the aperture1270 can decrease (as shown by the relatively small size of the aperturecircle). However, when the user is staring at the region 1276 in the FOR1208, the size of the aperture 1270 became slightly bigger than the sizeat the region 1272. When the user further changes his head pose to lookat the region 1274, the size of the aperture became bigger than the sizeat the region 1276 since the density of objects at the region 1274 islower than that of the region 1276. As yet another example, at region1278, the size of the aperture 1270 will increase because there arerarely any objects in the region 1278 of the FOR 1208. Although thedensity is illustrated with contour maps in these examples, the densitycan also be determined using a heat map, surface plot, or othergraphical or numerical representations. In general, the term contour mapincludes these other types of density representations (in 1D, 2D, or3D). Further, the contour map generally is not presented to the user,but may be calculated and used by the ARD processor to dynamicallydetermine the properties of the cone. The contour map may be dynamicallyupdated as the physical or virtual objects move in the user's FOV orFOR.

A variety of techniques can be employed for calculating the density ofobjects. As one example, the density can be calculated by counting allof the virtual objects within a user's FOV. The number of the virtualobjects may be used as an input to a function which specifies the sizeof the aperture based on the number of virtual objects in the FOV. Theimage 1282 a in FIG. 12E shows an FOV with three virtual objects,represented by a circle, an ellipse, and a triangle as well as a virtualrepresentation of an aperture 1280 which is illustrated using a texturedcircle. However, when the number of virtual objects decreases from three(in image 1282 a) to two (in image 1282 b), the size of the aperture1280 can increase accordingly. The wearable system can use the function1288 in FIG. 12F to calculate the amount of increase. In this figure,the size of the aperture is represented by the y-axis 1286 b while thenumber (or density) of virtual objects in the FOV is represented by thex-axis 1286 a. As illustrated, when the number of virtual objectsincreases (e.g., the density increases), the size of the aperturedecreases according to function 1288. In certain embodiments, thesmallest aperture size is zero which reduces the cone to a single ray.Although the function 1288 is illustrated as a linear function, anyother type of functions, such as one or more power law functions, mayalso be used. In some embodiments, the function 1288 may include one ormore threshold conditions. For example, when the density of objects hasreached a certain low threshold, the size of the aperture 1280 will nolonger increase even though the density of objects may further decrease.On the other hand, when the density of objects has reached a certainhigh threshold, the size of the aperture 1280 will no longer decreaseeven though the density of the objects may further increase. However,when the density is between the low and high threshold, the aperturesize may decrease following an exponential function, for example.

FIG. 12G illustrates another example technique for calculating density.For example, in addition to or in alternative to calculating the numberof virtual objects in the FOV, the wearable system can calculate thepercentage of the FOV covered by virtual objects. The images 1292 a and1292 b illustrate adjusting the aperture size based on the number ofobjects in the FOV. As illustrated in this example, although thepercentage of the FOV covered by virtual images is different between theimages 1292 a and 1292 b (where the objects in the image 1292 a arepositioned more sparsely), the size of the aperture 1280 does not changein these two images because the number of objects (e.g., three virtualobjects) is the same across the images 1292 a and 1292 b. In contrast,the images 1294 a and 1294 b illustrate adjusting aperture size based onthe percentage of FOV covered by the virtual objects. As shown in theimage 1294 a, the aperture 1280 will increase in size (as opposed toremaining the same in the image 1292 a) because a lower percentage ofthe FOV is covered by the virtual objects.

Examples of a Collision

The wearable system can determine whether one or more objects collidewith the cone during the cone cast. The wearable system may use acollision detection agent to detect collision. For example, thecollision detection agent can identify the objects intersecting with thesurface of the cone and/or identify the objects which are inside of thecone. The wearable system can make such identifications based on volumeand location of the cone, as well as the location information of theobjects (as stored in the world map described with reference to FIG. 9).The objects in the user's environment may be associated with meshes(also referred to as world mesh). The collision detection agent candetermine whether a portion for cone overlaps with the mesh of an objectto detect collision. In certain implementations, the wearable system maybe configured to only detect collisions between the cone and the objectson a certain depth plane.

The wearable system may provide a focus indicator to objects thatcollide with the cone. For example, in FIGS. 12B and 12C, the focusindicator may be a red highlight around all or part of the object.Accordingly, in FIG. 12B, when the wearable system determines that theobject 1230 a intersects with the cone 1220, the wearable system candisplay a red highlight around the object 1230 a to the user 1210.Similarly, in FIG. 12C, the wearable system identifies the object 1230 eand the 1230 d as objects intersecting with the cone 1220. The wearablesystem can provide red highlights around object 1230 d and object 1230e.

When the collision involves multiple objects, the wearable system maypresent a user interface element for selecting one or more objects amongthe multiple objects. For example, the wearable system can provide afocus indicator which can indicate a target object with which a user iscurrently interacting. The user can use hand gestures to actuate a userinput device and move the focus indicator to another target object.

In some embodiments, an object may be behind another object in theuser's 3D environment (e.g., the nearby object at least partly occludesthe more distant object). Advantageously, the wearable system may applydisambiguation techniques (e.g., to determine occluded objects,determine depth ordering or position among occluded objects, etc.)during a cone cast to capture both the object in the front and theobject in the back. For example, a paper shredder may be behind acomputer in the user's room. Although the user may not be able to seethe shredder (since it is blocked by the computer), the wearable systemcan cast a cone in the direction of the computer and detect collisionsfor both the shredder and the computer (because both the shredder andthe computer are in the wearable system's world map). The wearablesystem can display a pop up menu to provide a choice for the user toselect either the shredder or the computer or the wearable system mayuse the contextual information to determine which object to select(e.g., if the user is attempting to delete a document, the system mayselect the paper shredder). In certain implementations, the wearablesystem may be configured to only capture the object in the front. Inthis example, the wearable system will only detect collision between thecone and the paper shredder.

Upon the detection of the collision, the wearable system may allow theuser to interact with interactable objects in a variety of ways, suchas, e.g., selecting the objects, moving the objects, opening a menu ortoolbar associated with an object, or performing a game operation on anavatar in a game, etc. The user may interact with the interactableobjects through poses (e.g. head, body poses), hand gestures, inputsfrom a user input device, in combination or the like. For example, whenthe cone collides with multiple interactable objects, the user mayactuate a user input device to select among the multiple interactableobjects.

Example Processes of Dynamically Updating Aperture

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of an example process for selecting objects usingcone casting with dynamically adjustable aperture. This process 1300 canbe performed by the wearable system (shown in FIGS. 2 and 4).

At block 1310, the wearable system can initiate a cone cast. The conecast can be triggered by a user's pose or hand gestures on a user inputdevice. For example, the cone cast may be triggered by a click on theuser input device and/or by the user looking in a direction for anextended period of time. As shown in block 1320, the wearable system cananalyze salient features of the user's environment, such as, e.g., typeof the objects, layout of the objects (physical or virtual), location ofthe objects, size of the objects, density of the objects, distancebetween the objects and the user, etc. For example, the wearable systemcan calculate the density of the objects in the user's direction of gazeby determining the number of objects and the size of the objects infront of the user. The salient features of the environment may be partof the contextual information described herein.

At block 1330, the wearable system can adjust the size of the aperturebased on the contextual information. As discussed with reference toFIGS. 12B and 12C, the wearable system can increase the aperture sizewhen the objects are sparsely located and/or when there is noobstruction. The large aperture size can correspond to a large diameter1226 on the distal end 1228 b of the cone 1220. As the user moves aroundand/or changes the environment, the wearable system may update the sizeof the aperture based on the contextual information. The contextualinformation can be combined with other information such as user'spreference, user's pose, characteristics of the cone (such as, e.g.,depth, color, location, etc.) to determine and update the aperture.

The wearable system can render a cone cast visualization at block 1340.The cone cast visualization can include a cone with a non-negligenceaperture. As described with reference to FIGS. 12A, 12B, and 12C, thecone may have a variety of size, shape, or color.

At block 1350, the wearable system can translate a cone cast and scanfor collision. For example, the wearable system can translate the amountof movement of the cone using the techniques described with reference toFIGS. 16-18. The wearable system can also determine whether the cone hascollided with one or more objects by calculating the position of thecone with respect to the positions of the objects in the user'senvironment. As discussed with reference to FIGS. 12A, 12B, and 12C, oneor more objects can intersect with the surface of cone or fall withinthe cone.

If the wearable system does not detect a collision, at block 1360, thewearable system repeats block 1320 where the wearable system analyzesthe user's environment and can update the aperture based on the user'senvironment (as shown in block 1330). If the wearable system detects thecollision, the wearable system can indicate the collision, for example,by placing a focus indicator on the collided objects. When the conecollides with multiple interactable objects, the wearable system can usea disambiguation technique to capture one or more occluded objects.

At block 1380, the user can optionally interact with the collided objectin various ways as described with reference to FIGS. 12A, 12B, and 12C.For example, the user can select an object, open a menu associated withthe object, or move an object, etc.

FIG. 14 is another flowchart of an example process for selecting objectsusing cone casting with dynamically adjustable aperture. This process1400 can be performed by the wearable system (shown in FIGS. 2 and 4).At block 1410, the wearable system determines a group of objects in theuser's FOR.

At block 1420, the wearable system can initiate a cone cast on the groupof objects in the user's FOR. The wearable system can initiate the conecast based on an input from the user input device (for example, a swingof a wand) or a pose (e.g., a certain hand gesture). The wearable systemcan also automatically trigger a cone cast based on a certain condition.For example, the wearable system may automatically begin the cone castwhen the user is at the main display of the wearable system. The conecast may use a virtual cone which may have a central ray and an aperturetransverse to the central ray. The central ray may be based on theuser's direction of gaze.

At block 1430, the wearable system can determine the user's pose. Theuser's pose may be the head, eye, or body pose, alone or in combination.The wearable system can determine the user's FOV based on the user'spose. The FOV can comprise a portion of the FOR that is perceived at agiven time by the user.

Based on the user's FOV, at block 1440, the wearable system candetermine a subgroup of objects which are within the user's FOV. As theuser's FOV changes, the objects within the user's FOV may also change.The wearable system can be configured to analyze the contextualinformation of the objects in the user's FOV. For example, the wearablesystem may determine the density of the objects based on the object'ssize and location in the FOV.

At block 1450, the wearable system can determine a size of the aperturefor the cone cast event. The size of the aperture may be determinedbased on contextual information. For example, when the wearable systemdetermines that the density of objects is high, the wearable system mayuse a cone with small aperture to increase precision of userinteraction. In some embodiments, the wearable system can also adjustthe depth of the cone. For example, when the wearable system determinesthat all of the objects are located far away from the user, the wearablesystem may extend the cone to the depth plane having these objects.Similarly, if the wearable system determines that the objects arelocated close to the user, the wearable system may shrink the depth ofthe cone.

The wearable system can generate a visual representation of the conecast at block 1460. The visual representation of the cone canincorporate the properties of the cone as described with reference toFIGS. 12B and 12C. For example, the wearable system can display avirtual cone with a color, shape, and depth. The location of the virtualcone may be associated with the user's head pose, body pose, ordirection of gaze. The cone may be a geometric cone, a cuboid, apolyhedron, a pyramid, a frustum, or other three-dimensional shapeswhich may or may not be regular shapes.

As the user moves around, the cone can also move together with the user.As further described with reference to FIGS. 15-18, as the user movesaround, the amount of movement of the cone corresponding to the user'smovement can also be calculated based on contextual information. Forexample, if the density of the objects in the FOV is low, a slightmovement of the user can result in a large movement of the cone. On theother hand, if the density is high, that same movement may result in asmaller movement of the cone, which thereby allows for more refinedinteractions with the objects.

FIG. 15 is an example process 1500 for cone casting with dynamicallyadjustable aperture. The process 1500 in FIG. 15 can be performed by thewearable system (shown in FIGS. 2 and 4). At block 1510, the wearablesystem can determine contextual information in a user's environment. Thecontextual information may include information of the user's environmentand/or information associated with objects, such as the layout ofobjects, density of the objects, distance between the objects to theuser, etc.

At block 1520, the wearable system can cast a cone with a dynamicallyadjustable aperture based on the contextual information. For example,when the density of the objects is low, the aperture may be big.

At block 1530, the wearable system can detect collision between anobject and the cone. In some embodiments, the wearable system can detectthe collision based on the location of the object and the location ofthe cone. If at least a portion of the object overlaps with the cone,then a collision is detected. In some embodiments, the cone may collidewith multiple objects. The wearable system can apply disambiguationtechniques to capture one or more occluded objects. As a result, thewearable system can detect collision between the cone and the occludedobjects.

Upon detection of collision, the wearable system may assign a focusindicator to the objects that collide with the cone. The wearable systemcan also provide user interface options such as selecting an object fromthe collided objects. At block 1540, the wearable system can beconfigured to receive user interactions with the collided object. Forexample, the user may move the object, open a menu associated with theobject, select the object, etc.

Overview of Translating a Movement Based on Contextual Information

In addition to or in alternative to adjusting the aperture of a coneduring a cone cast, the contextual information can also be used totranslate a movement associated with a user input device or a portion ofa user's body (e.g., a change in a user's pose) to a user interfaceoperation, such as, e.g., moving a virtual object.

A user can move a virtual object or transport a focus indicator byactuating a user input device and/or by using poses such as head, eye,or body pose. As is apparent in an AR/VR/MR world, movement of a virtualobject does not refer to actual physical movement of the virtual object,since virtual objects are computer-generated images and not physicalobjects. Movement of a virtual object refers to the apparent movement ofthe virtual object as displayed to the user by the AR or VR system.

FIG. 16 schematically illustrates an example of moving a virtual objectusing a user input device. For example, a user may hold and move avirtual object by selecting the virtual object using the user inputdevice and move the virtual object by physically moving the user inputdevice 466. The user input device 466 may initially be at a firstposition 1610 a. The user 1210 may select a target virtual object 1640located at a first position 1610 b by actuating the user input device466 (e.g., by actuating a touch sensitive pad on the device). The targetvirtual object 1640 can be any type of virtual object that can bedisplayed and moved by the wearable system. For example, the virtualobject may be an avatar, a user interface element (e.g., a virtualdisplay), or any type of graphical element displayed by the wearablesystem (such as, e.g. a focus indicator). The user 1210 can move thetarget virtual object from the first position 1610 b to a secondposition 1620 b by moving the user input device 466 along a trajectory1650 b. However, because the target virtual object may be far away fromthe user, the user may need to move the user input device by a largedistance before the target virtual object reaches its desired location,which can cause the user to use large hand and arm movements andultimately lead to fatigue of the user.

Embodiments of the wearable system may provide techniques for movingdistant virtual objects rapidly and efficiently by moving the virtualobject by an amount based on the movement of the controller and amultiplier that tends to increase with the distance to the virtualobject. Such embodiments may advantageously permit the user to movedistant virtual objects using shorter hand and arm movements, therebymitigating user fatigue.

The wearable system can calculate a multiplier for mapping movement ofthe user input device to the movement of the target virtual object. Themovement of the target virtual object may be based on the movement ofthe input controller and the multiplier. For example, the amount ofmovements of the target virtual object may be equal to the amount ofmovements of the input controller multiplied by the multiplier. This mayreduce the amount the user needs to move before the target virtualobject reaches the desired location. For example, as shown in FIG. 16,the wearable system may determine a multiplier which allows the user tomove the user input device along the trajectory 1650 a (which is shorterthan the trajectory 1650 b) in order to move the virtual object fromposition 1620 b to position 1610 b.

Additionally or alternatively, the user 1210 can move a virtual objectusing head poses. For example, as shown in FIG. 16, a head may havemultiple degrees of freedom. As the head moves toward differentdirections, the head pose will change relative to the natural restingdirection 1260. The example coordinate system in FIG. 16 shows threeangular degrees of freedom (e.g., yaw, pitch, and roll) that can be usedfor measuring the head pose relative to the natural resting state 1260of the head. As illustrated in FIG. 16, the head can tilt forward andbackward (e.g. pitching), turning left and right (e.g. yawing), andtilting side to side (e.g. rolling). In other implementations, othertechniques or angular representations for measuring head pose can beused, for example, any other type of Euler angle system. The wearablesystem (see e.g. the wearable system 200 in FIG. 2 and the wearablesystem 400 in FIG. 4) as discussed herein may be used to determine theuser's head pose, e.g., using accelerometers, inertial measurementunits, etc. The wearable system may also move the virtual objects basedon eye pose (e.g., as measured by an eye-tracking camera) and head pose.For example, the user may select a virtual object by gazing at an objectfor an extended period of time and move the selected object using headpose. The techniques for mapping the movement of user input devicedescribed herein can also be applied to changes in the user's head, eye,and/or body pose, namely, that the amount of movement of a virtualobject is a multiplier times the amount of physical movement of theuser's body (e.g., eye, head, hands, etc.).

Examples of Multipliers Based on Distance

As described above, the wearable system can calculate a multiplier formapping the movement of the user input device to the movement of thetarget virtual object. The multiplier may be calculated based oncontextual information such as, e.g., the distance between the user andthe target virtual object. For example, as shown in FIG. 16, themultiplier may be calculated using the distance between the position ofthe head of the user 1210 and position of the virtual object 1640.

FIG. 17 schematically illustrates examples of a multiplier as a functionof distance. As shown in FIG. 17, the axis 1704 shows the magnitude ofthe multiplier. The axis 1702 illustrates various distances (e.g., infeet or meters) between two end points. The end points may be determinedin a variety of ways. For example, one end point may be the position ofthe user (e.g., measured from the ARD of the user) or the location ofthe user input device. The other end point may be the position of thetarget virtual object.

The distance between the user and the virtual object may change as endpoints for calculating the distance change. For example, the user and/orthe virtual object may move around. The user 1210 may actuate the userinput device to pull a virtual object closer. During this process, themultiplier may change based on various factors described herein. Forexample, the multiplier may decrease as the virtual object gets closerto the user or increase as the virtual object gets farther from theuser.

Curves 1710, 1720, and 1730 illustrate examples of relationships betweenthe multiplier and the distance. As shown by the curve 1710, themultiplier may equal one when the distance is less than a threshold1752. The curve 1710 shows a linear relationship between the distanceand the multiplier in-between the threshold 1752 and the threshold 1754.As described with reference to FIG. 16, this proportional linearrelationship may cause the wearable system to map a small change inposition of the user input device to a large change in position for anobject located farther away (up to the threshold 1754). The curve 1710reaches its maximum at a threshold 1754, and therefore any furtherincrease in distance will not change the magnitude of the multiplier.This may prevent very distant virtual objects from moving extremelylarge distances in response to small movements of the user input device.

The thresholding of the multiplier in the curve 1710 is optional (ateither or both thresholds 1752, 1754). The wearable system may generatethe multiplier using no thresholds or multiple thresholds.

To allow for more precise one-to-one manipulation, one example thresholdmay be the user's hand reach. The user's hand reach may be an adjustableparameter that can be set by the user or the HMD (to account for userswith different reaches). The user's hand reach may be in a range fromabout 10 cm to about 1.5 m in various implementations. With reference toFIG. 16, for example, if the target virtual object is within the handreach, then, as the user 1210 moves the user input device 466 alongtrajectory 1650 a from position 1610 a to position 1620 a, the targetvirtual object may also move along trajectory 1650 a. If the targetvirtual object 1640 is farther than the hand reach, the multiplier mayincrease. For example, in FIG. 16, if the target virtual object 1640 isinitially at position 1610 b, as the user input device 466 moves fromposition 1610 a to position 1620 a, the target virtual object 1640 canmove from position 1610 b to position 1620 b, and thereby moving agreater amount of distance than that of the user input device 466.

The relationship between the distance and the multiplier is not limitedto a linear relationship; rather it may be determined based on a varietyof algorithms and/or factors. For example, as shown in FIG. 17, thecurve 1720 may be generated using one or more power law functionsbetween distance and multiplier, e.g., where the multiplier isproportional to distance raised to a power. The power may be 0.5, 1.5,2. Similarly, the curve 1730 may be generated based on user preferencewhere the multiplier is equal to one when the object is within auser-adjustable threshold distance.

As an example, the movement of the virtual object (e.g., an angularmovement) may be represented by a variable, delta_object, and themovement of the user input device may be represented by a variable,delta_input. The deltas are related by the multiplier:delta_object=multiplier(d)*delta_input.  (1)

Sensors in the user input device or the outward facing camera of the ARDmay be used to measure delta_input. The multiplier as a function ofdistance d can be determined from a look-up table, a functional form(e.g., power law), or a curve (see, e.g., the examples in FIG. 17). Insome implementations, the distance may be normalized by the distancefrom the user to the input device. For example, the distance d may bedetermined as:

$\begin{matrix}{d = {\frac{\text{distance from camera to object}}{\text{distance from camera to input device}}.}} & (2)\end{matrix}$In Equation (2), the normalized distance is dimensionless and equal toone if the object is at the distance of the input device. As discussedabove, the multiplier may be set to one for objects within hand reach(e.g., within the distance from the camera to the input device).Accordingly, Equation (2) permits the wearable system to dynamicallyadjust the hand's length distance based on where the user is holding theinput device. An example power-law multiplier can be:

$\begin{matrix}{{{multiplier}\mspace{11mu}(d)} = \left\{ {\begin{matrix}{d^{p},{d \geq 1}} \\{1,{d < 1}}\end{matrix},} \right.} & (3)\end{matrix}$where the power p is, for example, 1 (linear), 2 (quadratic), or anyother integer or real number.Other Example Multipliers

The multiplier can also be calculated using other factors such ascontextual information about the user's physical and/or virtualenvironment. For example, if the virtual object is located in a densecluster of objects, the wearable system may use a smaller multiplier andincrease precision of placing the object. The contextual information mayalso include properties of the virtual object. For example, in a drivinggame, the wearable system may provide a large multiplier for a good carand a small multiplier for a mediocre car.

Multipliers may depend on the direction of movements. For example, inthe x-y-z coordinate shown in FIG. 6, the multiplier for x-axis may bedifferent from the multiplier for z-axis. With reference to FIG. 16,instead of moving the virtual object 1640 from 1610 b to 1620 b, theuser 1210 may want to pull the virtual object 1640 closer to himself. Inthis situation, the wearable system may use a multiplier that is smallerthan the multiplier for moving the virtual object 1640 from 1610 b to1620 b. This way, the virtual object 1640 may not suddenly appear to bevery close to the user.

The wearable system can allow the user to configure the multiplier. Forexample, the wearable system may give the user several options forchoosing a multiplier. A user preferring slow movements can choose themultiplier with a small magnitude. The user may also provide certainfactors and/or the importance of the factors which the wearable systemwill use to automatically determine the multiplier. For example, theuser can set a weight of the distance to be higher than the weightassociated with the properties of the virtual objects. Accordingly, thedistance will have a larger impact on the magnitude of the multiplierthan the properties of the virtual objects. Further, as described withreference to FIG. 17, a multiplier may have one or more thresholds. Oneor more of the thresholds may be calculated based on values of a set offactors (such as factors determined from contextual information). Incertain embodiments, one threshold may be calculated based on one set offactors while another threshold may be calculated based on another setof factors (which may not be overlapping with the first set of factors).

Example Applications of Multipliers

As described with reference to FIGS. 16 and 17, the wearable system canapply a multiplier for mapping the movements of the user input device tothe movements of a virtual object. The movements may include speed,acceleration, or position change (such as rotation, movement from onelocation to the other). For example, the wearable system may beconfigured to move a virtual object faster when the virtual object islocated farther away.

As another example, the multiplier may also be used to determine theacceleration of the virtual object. When the virtual object is far awayfrom the user, the virtual object may have a large initial accelerationwhen the user actuates the user input device to move the virtual object.In some embodiments, the multiplier for acceleration may peak ordecrease after a certain threshold. For example, to avoid moving theobject too fast, the wearable system may decrease the multiplier foracceleration when the virtual object reaches the midpoint of atrajectory or when the speed of the virtual object reaches a threshold.

In some implementations, the wearable system may use a focus indicatorto show current position of the user input device and/or a user's pose(e.g. head, body, eye pose). The multiplier may be applied to indicatethe position change of the focus indicator. For example, the wearablesystem may show a virtual cone during a cone cast (see descriptions ofcone casting in FIGS. 12-15). When the depth of the cone is set at adistant location, the wearable system may apply large multiplier.Accordingly, as the user moves around, the virtual cone may move a greatamount of distance.

Additionally or alternatively, the wearable system can map the movementsof the user input device to the movements of multiple virtual objects.For example, in a virtual game, the player can move a group of virtualsoldiers together by actuating the user input device. The wearablesystem can translate the movements of the user input device to themovements of the group of virtual soldiers by applying the multiplier tothe group of virtual soldiers together and/or by applying the multiplierto each of the virtual soldiers in the group.

Example Processes of Moving a Virtual Object

FIG. 18 illustrates a flowchart of an example process for moving avirtual object in response to movements of the user input device. Theprocess 1800 can be performed by the wearable system shown in FIGS. 2and 4.

At block 1810, the wearable system receives a selection of a targetvirtual object. The virtual object may be displayed by the wearablesystem at a first position in a 3D space. The user can select the targetvirtual object by actuating the user input device. Additionally oralternatively, the wearable system can be configured to support a userto move the target virtual object using various body, head, or eyeposes. For example, the user may select the target virtual object bypointing his finger at the target virtual object and may move the targetvirtual object by moving his arm.

At block 1820, the wearable system can receive an indication of amovement for the target virtual object. The wearable system may receivesuch indication from the user input device. The wearable system may alsoreceive such indication from the sensors (such as, e.g., theoutward-facing imaging system 464) which can determine changes in theuser's pose. The indication can be a trajectory of movements or changesin a position of a portion of a user's body or the user input device.

At block 1830, the wearable system determines the value of themultiplier that will be applied based on contextual informationdescribed herein. For example, the wearable system may calculate amultiplier based on a distance between the object and the user inputdevice, where the multiplier can increase with an increasing distance ofthe target virtual object (at least over a range of distances from theuser input device; see, e.g., the example in Eq. (3)). In someembodiments, the multiplier is a non-decreasing function of distancebetween the object and the user input device.

As shown in block 1840, this multiplier may be used to calculate theamount of movement for the target virtual object. For example, where themultiplier is calculated using the distance between the object and theuser input device, the multiplier might be large for a faraway targetvirtual object. The wearable system may use Equation (3) to relate theamount of movement of the input device and the multiplier to yield theamount of movement of the target virtual object. The trajectory of thetarget virtual object's movements may be calculated using other factorstogether with the multiplier. For example, the wearable system maycalculate the trajectory based on the environment of the user. Whenthere is another object along the path of the target virtual object, thewearable system may be configured to move the target virtual object soas to circumvent collision with that other object.

At block 1850, the wearable system can display the movement of thetarget virtual object based on the calculated trajectory or themultiplier. For example, the wearable system can calculate a secondposition in the 3D space based on the amount of movement calculated inblock 1840. The wearable system can accordingly display the targetvirtual object at the second position. As discussed with reference toFIG. 16, the wearable system may also be configured display the movementof the visible focus indicator using the multiplier.

Additional Embodiments

In a 1st aspect, method for selecting a virtual object located inthree-dimensional (3D) space, the method comprising: under control of anaugmented reality (AR) system comprising computer hardware, the ARsystem configured to permit user interaction with objects in a field ofregard (FOR) of a user, the FOR comprising a portion of the environmentaround the user that is capable of being perceived by the user via theAR system: determining a group of objects in the FOR of the user;determining a pose of the user; initiating a cone cast on the group ofobjects, the cone cast comprises casting a virtual cone with an aperturein a direction based at least partly on the pose of the user; analyzingcontextual information associated with a subgroup of objects within thegroup of objects; updating the aperture for the cone cast event based atleast partly on the contextual information; and rendering a visualrepresentation of the cone cast.

In a 2nd aspect, the method of aspect 1, wherein the subgroup of theobjects are within a field of view (FOV) of the user, the FOV comprisinga portion of the FOR that is capable of being perceived at a given timeby the user via the AR system.

In a 3rd aspect, the method of aspect 1 or 2, wherein the contextualinformation comprises one or more of the following: a type, a layout, alocation, a size, or a density of one or more objects within thesubgroup of the objects.

In a 4th aspect, the method of aspect 3, wherein the contextualinformation further comprises a preference of the user.

In a 5th aspect, the method of any one of aspects 1-4, furthercomprising detecting collisions between the cone and one or moreobjects.

In a 6th aspect, the method of aspect 5, wherein the one or more objectscomprise an interactable object.

In a 7th aspect, the method of aspect 6, wherein in response todetecting a collision with the interactable object, the method furthercomprises performing an action on the interactable object.

In an 8th aspect, the method of aspect 7, wherein the action comprisesone or more of the following: selecting the interactable object, movingthe interactable object, or opening a menu associated with theinteractable object.

In a 9th aspect, the method of aspect 5 or 6, further comprisingapplying an occlusion disambiguation technique to the one or moreobjects collided with the cone.

In a 10th aspect, the method of any one of aspects 1-9, furthercomprising updating the aperture of the cone based at least in part on achange in the pose of the user.

In an 11th aspect, the method of any one of aspects 1-10, wherein thecone has a shape.

In a 12th aspect, the method of aspect 11, wherein the shape comprisesone or more of: geometric cone, cuboid, polyhedron, pyramid, or frustum.

In a 13th aspect, the method of any one of aspects 1-12, wherein thecone has a central ray.

In a 14th aspect, the method of aspect 13, wherein the central ray isdetermined at least partly on the pose of the user.

In a 15th aspect, the method of aspect 13 or 14, wherein the aperture istransverse to the central ray.

In a 16th aspect, the method of any one of aspects 1-15, furthercomprising disambiguating objects that collide with the cone.

In a 17th aspect, an augmented reality system configured to perform themethod of any one of aspects 1-16.

In an 18th aspect, a method for translating a virtual object located inthree-dimensional (3D) space, the method comprising: under control of anaugmented reality (AR) system comprising computer hardware and a userinput device, the AR system configured to permit user interaction withvirtual objects in a field of regard (FOR) of a user, the FOR comprisinga portion of the environment around a user that is capable of beingperceived by the user via the AR system, the virtual objects presentedfor display to the user via the AR system: determining a group ofvirtual objects in the FOR of the user; receiving a selection of atarget virtual object within the group of the virtual objects in the FORof the user; calculating a distance to the target virtual object;determining a multiplier based at least partly on the distance to thetarget virtual object; receiving a first movement of the user inputdevice; calculating a second movement of the target virtual object, thesecond movement based at least partly on the first movement and themultiplier; and moving the target virtual object by an amount based atleast partly on the second movement.

In a 19th aspect, the method of aspect 18, wherein calculating thedistance to the virtual object comprises calculating a distance betweenthe virtual object and the user input device, a distance between thevirtual object and a sensor on the AR system, or a distance between theuser input device and a sensor on the AR system.

In a 20th aspect, the method of aspect 18, wherein the second movementequals the first movement multiplied by the multiplier.

In a 21st aspect, the method of aspect 18, wherein the multiplierincreases with increasing distance over a first range of distances.

In a 22nd aspect, the method of aspect 21, wherein the multiplierincreases linearly with increasing distance over the first range.

In a 23rd aspect, the method of aspect 21, wherein the multiplierincreases as a power of the distance over the first range.

In a 24th aspect, the method of aspect 18, wherein the multiplier equalsa first threshold when the distance is less than a first distance.

In a 25th aspect, the method of aspect 24, wherein the first distance isequal to a user's hand reach.

In a 26th aspect, the method of aspect 24, wherein the first thresholdequals one.

In a 27th aspect, the method of aspect any one of aspects 18-26, whereinthe first movement or the second movement comprise a first speed or asecond speed, respectively.

In a 28th aspect, the method of aspect any one of aspects 18-26, whereinthe first movement and the second movement comprise a first accelerationand a second acceleration, respectively.

In a 29th aspect, the method of any one of aspects 18-28, wherein the ARsystem comprises a head-mounted display.

In a 30th aspect, the method of any one of aspects 18-29, wherein thetarget virtual object is interactable.

In a 31st aspect, a method for moving a virtual object located inthree-dimensional (3D) space, the method comprising: under control of anaugmented reality (AR) system comprising computer hardware and a userinput device, the AR system configured to present for display to a uservirtual objects in the 3D space: receiving a selection of a targetvirtual object displayed to the user at a first position in the 3Dspace; receiving an indication of movement for the target virtualobject; determining a multiplier to be applied to movement of the targetvirtual object; calculating a movement amount for the target virtualobject, the movement amount based at least partly on the indication ofmovement and the multiplier; and displaying, to the user, the targetvirtual object at a second position, the second position based at leastin part on the first position and the movement amount.

In a 32nd aspect, the method of aspect 31, wherein determining amultiplier to be applied to movement of the target virtual objectcomprises calculating a distance to the target virtual object.

In a 33rd aspect, the method of aspect 32, wherein the distance isbetween the target virtual object and the user input device, between thetarget virtual object and a sensor on the AR system, or between the userinput device and a sensor on the AR system.

In a 34th aspect, the method of aspect 32, wherein the multiplierincreases when the distance increases.

In a 35th aspect, the method of any one of aspects 31-34, wherein themultiplier is at least partly based on user's preference.

In a 36th aspect, the method of any one of aspects 31-35, wherein themovement comprises one or more of the following: position change, speed,or acceleration.

In a 37th aspect, the method of any one of aspects 31-36, wherein thetarget virtual object comprises a group of virtual objects.

In a 38th aspect, the method of aspect any one of aspects 31-37, whereinthe target virtual object is interactable.

In a 39th aspect, the method of any one of aspects 31-38, whereinreceiving an indication of movement comprises receiving indication ofmovements from a user input device.

In a 40th aspect, the method of any one of aspects 31-38, whereinreceiving an indication of movement comprises receiving indication of achange in the user's pose.

In a 41st aspect, the method of aspect 40, wherein the pose of the usercomprises one or more of the following: a head pose, an eye pose, or abody pose.

In a 42nd aspect, an augmented reality system (AR) for translating avirtual object located in three-dimensional (3D) space, the systemcomprising: a display system; a user input device; computer processorsconfigured to communicate with the display system and the user inputdevice to: determine a group of virtual objects in the FOR of the user;receive a selection of a target virtual object within the group of thevirtual objects in the FOR of the user; calculate a distance to thetarget virtual object; determine a multiplier based at least partly onthe distance to the target virtual object; receive a first movement ofthe user input device; calculate a second movement of the target virtualobject, the second movement based at least partly on the first movementand the multiplier; and move the target virtual object by an amountbased at least partly on the second movement.

In a 43rd aspect, the system of aspect 42, wherein calculate thedistance to the target virtual object comprises calculate a distancebetween the target virtual object and the user input device, a distancebetween the virtual object and a sensor on the AR system, or a distancebetween the user input device and a sensor on the AR system.

In a 44th aspect, the system of aspect 42, wherein the second movementequals the first movement multiplied by the multiplier.

In a 45th aspect, the system of aspect 42, wherein the multiplierincreases with increasing distance over a first range of distances.

In a 46th aspect, the system of aspect 45, wherein the multiplierincreases linearly with increasing distance over the first range.

In a 47th aspect, the system of aspect 45, wherein the multiplierincreases as a power of the distance over the first range.

In a 48th aspect, the system of aspect 42, wherein the multiplier equalsa first threshold when the distance is less than a first distance.

In a 49th aspect, the system of aspect 48, wherein the first distance isequal to a user's hand reach.

In a 50th aspect, the system of aspect 48, wherein the first thresholdequals one.

In a 51st aspect, the system of aspect any one of aspects 42-50, whereinthe first movement or the second movement comprise a first speed or asecond speed, respectively.

In a 52nd aspect, the system of aspect any one of aspects 42-50, whereinthe first movement and the second movement comprise a first accelerationand a second acceleration, respectively.

In a 53rd aspect, the system of any one of aspects 42-52, wherein the ARsystem comprises a head-mounted display.

In a 54th aspect, the system of any one of aspects 42-53, wherein thetarget virtual object is interactable.

In a 55th aspect, an augmented reality system (AR) for moving a virtualobject located in three-dimensional (3D) space, the system comprising: adisplay system; a user input device; computer processors configured tocommunicate with the display system and the user input device to:receive a selection of a target virtual object displayed to the user ata first position in the 3D space; receive an indication of movement forthe target virtual object; determine a multiplier to be applied tomovement of the target virtual object; calculate a movement amount forthe target virtual object, the movement amount based at least partly onthe indication of movement and the multiplier; and display, to the user,the target virtual object at a second position, the second positionbased at least in part on the first position and the movement amount.

In a 56th aspect, the system of aspect 55, wherein determine amultiplier to be applied to movement of the target virtual objectcomprises calculate a distance to the target virtual object.

In a 57th aspect, the system of aspect 56, wherein the distance isbetween the virtual object and the user input device, between thevirtual object and a sensor on the AR system, or between the user inputdevice and a sensor on the AR system.

In a 58th aspect, the system of aspect 56, wherein the multiplierincreases when the distance increases.

In a 59th aspect, the system of any one of aspects 55-58, wherein themultiplier is at least partly based on user's preference.

In a 60th aspect, the system of any one of aspects 55-59, wherein themovement comprises one or more of the following: position change, speed,or acceleration.

In a 61st aspect, the system of any one of aspects 55-60, wherein thetarget virtual object comprises a group of virtual objects.

In a 62nd aspect, the system of aspect any one of aspects 55-61, whereinthe target virtual object is interactable.

In a 63rd aspect, the system of any one of aspects 55-62, whereinreceiving an indication of movement comprises receiving indication ofmovements from a user input device.

In a 64th aspect, the system of any one of aspects 55-63, whereinreceiving an indication of movement comprises receiving indication of achange in the user's pose.

In a 65th aspect, the system of aspect 64, wherein the pose of the usercomprises one or more of the following: a head pose, an eye pose, or abody pose.

In a 66th aspect, a system for interacting with objects for a wearabledevice, the system comprising: display system of a wearable deviceconfigured to present a three-dimensional (3D) view to a user and permita user interaction with objects in a field of regard (FOR) of a user,the FOR comprising a portion of the environment around the user that iscapable of being perceived by the user via the display system; a sensorconfigured to acquire data associated with a pose of the user; ahardware processor in communication with the sensor and the displaysystem, the hardware processor programmed to: determine a pose of theuser based on the data acquired by the sensor; initiate a cone cast on agroup of objects in the FOR, the cone cast comprises casting a virtualcone with an aperture in a direction based at least partly on the poseof the user; analyze contextual information associated with the user'senvironment; update the aperture of the virtual cone based at leastpartly on the contextual information; and render a visual representationof the virtual cone for the cone cast.

In a 67th aspect, the system of aspect 66, wherein the contextualinformation comprises at least one of: a type, a layout, a location, asize, or a density of a subgroup of objects within the field of view(FOV) of the user, wherein the FOV comprises a portion of the FOR thatis capable of being perceived at a given time by the user via thedisplay system.

In a 68th aspect, the system of aspect 67, wherein the density of thesubgroup of objects within the FOV of the user is calculated by at leastone of: calculating a number of objects in the subgroup of objects;calculating a percentage of the FOV that is covered by the subgroup ofobjects; or calculating a contour map for objects in the subgroup ofobjects.

In a 69th aspect, the system of any one of aspects 66-68, wherein thehardware processor is further programmed to detect a collision betweenthe virtual cone and one or more objects within the group of objects inthe FOR, and wherein in response to detecting the collision, thehardware processor is further programmed to present a focus indicator tothe one or more objects.

In a 70th aspect, the system of aspect 69, wherein the hardwareprocessor is programmed to apply an occlusion disambiguation techniqueto the one or more objects collided with the virtual cone to identify anoccluded object.

In a 71st aspect, the system of any one of aspects 66-70, wherein thecone comprises a central ray and wherein the aperture is transverse tothe central ray.

In a 72nd aspect, the system of any one of aspects 66-71, wherein thevirtual cone comprises a proximal end and wherein the proximal end isanchored to at least one of the following locations: a locationin-between the user's eyes, a location on a portion of a user's arm, alocation on a user input device, or any other location in theenvironment of the user.

In a 73rd aspect, the system of any one of aspects 66-72, wherein thehardware processor is further programmed to receive an indication from auser input device anchoring a depth of the virtual cone to a depth planeand wherein cone cast is performed on the group of objects within thedepth plane.

In a 74th aspect, the system of any one of aspects 66-73, wherein thesensor comprises at least one of: an inertial measurement unit or anoutward-facing imaging system.

In a 75^(th) aspect, the system of any one of aspects 66-74, wherein thevirtual cone comprises at least one of: a geometric cone, a cuboid, apolyhedron, a pyramid, or a frustum.

In a 76th aspect, a method for interacting with objects for a wearabledevice, the method comprising: receiving a selection of a target virtualobject displayed to a user at a first position in a three-dimensional(3D) space; receiving an indication of a movement for the target virtualobject; analyzing contextual information associated with the targetvirtual object; calculating a multiplier to be applied to a movement ofthe target virtual object based at least partly on the contextualinformation; calculating a movement amount for the target virtualobject, the movement amount based at least partly on the indication ofthe movement and the multiplier; and displaying, to the user, the targetvirtual object at a second position, the second position based at leastin part on the first position and the movement amount.

In a 77th aspect, the method of aspect 76, wherein the contextualinformation comprises a distance from the user to the target virtualobject.

In a 78th aspect, the method of aspect 77, wherein the multiplierincreases proportionally with an increase in the distance.

In a 79th aspect, the method of any one of aspects 76-78, wherein themovement comprises one or more of: a position change, a speed, or anacceleration.

In an 80th aspect, the method of any one of aspects 76-79, wherein theindication of the movement comprises at least one of: an actuation of auser input device associated with the wearable device or a change in apose of the user.

In an 81st aspect, the method of aspect 80, wherein the pose comprisesone or more of: a head pose, an eye pose, or a body pose.

In an 82nd aspect, a system for interacting with objects for a wearabledevice, the system comprising: a display system of a wearable deviceconfigured to present a three-dimensional (3D) view of to a user, the 3Dview comprising a target virtual object; a hardware processor incommunication with the display system, the hardware processor programmedto: receive an indication of a movement for the target virtual object;analyze contextual information associated with the target virtualobject; calculate a multiplier to be applied to a movement of the targetvirtual object based at least partly on the contextual information;calculate a movement amount for the target virtual object, the movementamount based at least partly on the indication of the movement and themultiplier; and display, by the display system, the target virtualobject at a second position, the second position based at least in parton the first position and the movement amount.

In an 83rd aspect, the system of aspect 82, wherein the indication ofthe movement of the target virtual object comprises a change in a poseof a user of the wearable device or an input received from a user inputdevice associated with the wearable device.

In an 84th aspect, the system of any one of aspects 82-83, wherein thecontextual information comprises a distance from the user to the targetvirtual object.

In an 85th aspect, the system of any one of aspects 82-84, wherein themultiplier equals to one when the distance is less than a thresholddistance, wherein the threshold distance equals to a hand reach of theuser.

In an 86th aspect, the system of any one of aspects 82-85, wherein themultiplier increases proportionally with an increase in the distance.

In an 87th aspect, the system of any one of aspects 82-86, wherein themovement comprises one or more of: a position change, a speed, or anacceleration.

CONCLUSION

Each of the processes, methods, and algorithms described herein and/ordepicted in the attached figures may be embodied in, and fully orpartially automated by, code modules executed by one or more physicalcomputing systems, hardware computer processors, application-specificcircuitry, and/or electronic hardware configured to execute specific andparticular computer instructions. For example, computing systems caninclude general purpose computers (e.g., servers) programmed withspecific computer instructions or special purpose computers, specialpurpose circuitry, and so forth. A code module may be compiled andlinked into an executable program, installed in a dynamic link library,or may be written in an interpreted programming language. In someimplementations, particular operations and methods may be performed bycircuitry that is specific to a given function.

Further, certain implementations of the functionality of the presentdisclosure are sufficiently mathematically, computationally, ortechnically complex that application-specific hardware or one or morephysical computing devices (utilizing appropriate specialized executableinstructions) may be necessary to perform the functionality, forexample, due to the volume or complexity of the calculations involved orto provide results substantially in real-time. For example, a video mayinclude many frames, with each frame having millions of pixels, andspecifically programmed computer hardware is necessary to process thevideo data to provide a desired image processing task or application ina commercially reasonable amount of time.

Code modules or any type of data may be stored on any type ofnon-transitory computer-readable medium, such as physical computerstorage including hard drives, solid state memory, random access memory(RAM), read only memory (ROM), optical disc, volatile or non-volatilestorage, combinations of the same and/or the like. The methods andmodules (or data) may also be transmitted as generated data signals(e.g., as part of a carrier wave or other analog or digital propagatedsignal) on a variety of computer-readable transmission mediums,including wireless-based and wired/cable-based mediums, and may take avariety of forms (e.g., as part of a single or multiplexed analogsignal, or as multiple discrete digital packets or frames). The resultsof the disclosed processes or process steps may be stored, persistentlyor otherwise, in any type of non-transitory, tangible computer storageor may be communicated via a computer-readable transmission medium.

Any processes, blocks, states, steps, or functionalities in flowdiagrams described herein and/or depicted in the attached figures shouldbe understood as potentially representing code modules, segments, orportions of code which include one or more executable instructions forimplementing specific functions (e.g., logical or arithmetical) or stepsin the process. The various processes, blocks, states, steps, orfunctionalities can be combined, rearranged, added to, deleted from,modified, or otherwise changed from the illustrative examples providedherein. In some embodiments, additional or different computing systemsor code modules may perform some or all of the functionalities describedherein. The methods and processes described herein are also not limitedto any particular sequence, and the blocks, steps, or states relatingthereto can be performed in other sequences that are appropriate, forexample, in serial, in parallel, or in some other manner. Tasks orevents may be added to or removed from the disclosed exampleembodiments. Moreover, the separation of various system components inthe implementations described herein is for illustrative purposes andshould not be understood as requiring such separation in allimplementations. It should be understood that the described programcomponents, methods, and systems can generally be integrated together ina single computer product or packaged into multiple computer products.Many implementation variations are possible.

The processes, methods, and systems may be implemented in a network (ordistributed) computing environment. Network environments includeenterprise-wide computer networks, intranets, local area networks (LAN),wide area networks (WAN), personal area networks (PAN), cloud computingnetworks, crowd-sourced computing networks, the Internet, and the WorldWide Web. The network may be a wired or a wireless network or any othertype of communication network.

The systems and methods of the disclosure each have several innovativeaspects, no single one of which is solely responsible or required forthe desirable attributes disclosed herein. The various features andprocesses described above may be used independently of one another, ormay be combined in various ways. All possible combinations andsubcombinations are intended to fall within the scope of thisdisclosure. Various modifications to the implementations described inthis disclosure may be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, andthe generic principles defined herein may be applied to otherimplementations without departing from the spirit or scope of thisdisclosure. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to theimplementations shown herein, but are to be accorded the widest scopeconsistent with this disclosure, the principles and the novel featuresdisclosed herein.

Certain features that are described in this specification in the contextof separate implementations also can be implemented in combination in asingle implementation. Conversely, various features that are describedin the context of a single implementation also can be implemented inmultiple implementations separately or in any suitable subcombination.Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certaincombinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more featuresfrom a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from thecombination, and the claimed combination may be directed to asubcombination or variation of a subcombination. No single feature orgroup of features is necessary or indispensable to each and everyembodiment.

Conditional language used herein, such as, among others, “can,” “could,”“might,” “may,” “e.g.,” and the like, unless specifically statedotherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, isgenerally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, whileother embodiments do not include, certain features, elements and/orsteps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended toimply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required forone or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarilyinclude logic for deciding, with or without author input or prompting,whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to beperformed in any particular embodiment. The terms “comprising,”“including,” “having,” and the like are synonymous and are usedinclusively, in an open-ended fashion, and do not exclude additionalelements, features, acts, operations, and so forth. Also, the term “or”is used in its inclusive sense (and not in its exclusive sense) so thatwhen used, for example, to connect a list of elements, the term “or”means one, some, or all of the elements in the list. In addition, thearticles “a,” “an,” and “the” as used in this application and theappended claims are to be construed to mean “one or more” or “at leastone” unless specified otherwise.

As used herein, a phrase referring to “at least one of” a list of itemsrefers to any combination of those items, including single members. Asan example, “at least one of: A, B, or C” is intended to cover: A, B, C,A and B, A and C, B and C, and A, B, and C. Conjunctive language such asthe phrase “at least one of X, Y and Z,” unless specifically statedotherwise, is otherwise understood with the context as used in generalto convey that an item, term, etc. may be at least one of X, Y or Z.Thus, such conjunctive language is not generally intended to imply thatcertain embodiments require at least one of X, at least one of Y and atleast one of Z to each be present.

Similarly, while operations may be depicted in the drawings in aparticular order, it is to be recognized that such operations need notbe performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, orthat all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirableresults. Further, the drawings may schematically depict one more exampleprocesses in the form of a flowchart. However, other operations that arenot depicted can be incorporated in the example methods and processesthat are schematically illustrated. For example, one or more additionaloperations can be performed before, after, simultaneously, or betweenany of the illustrated operations. Additionally, the operations may berearranged or reordered in other implementations. In certaincircumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous.Moreover, the separation of various system components in theimplementations described above should not be understood as requiringsuch separation in all implementations, and it should be understood thatthe described program components and systems can generally be integratedtogether in a single software product or packaged into multiple softwareproducts. Additionally, other implementations are within the scope ofthe following claims. In some cases, the actions recited in the claimscan be performed in a different order and still achieve desirableresults.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: a display system of awearable device configured to provide a three-dimensional (3D) view to auser and permit a user interaction with objects in a field of regard(FOR) of a user, the FOR comprising a portion of the environment aroundthe user that is capable of being perceived by the user via the displaysystem; a hardware processor in communication with the display system,the hardware processor programmed to: determine contextual informationregarding the environment of the user; determine, based at least in parton the contextual information, a dynamically-adjustable aperture of avirtual cone; initiate a cone cast of the virtual cone with thedynamically-adjustable aperture; detect a collision between the virtualcone and one or more objects in the environment; and perform an actionon the one or more objects.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein thecontextual information comprises at least one of: a type, a layout, alocation, a size, a distance, or a density of objects within a field ofview (FOV) of the user.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein to calculatethe density of objects within the FOV of the user, the hardwareprocessor is programmed to: calculate a number of objects in the FOV;calculate a fraction of the FOV that is covered by the objects; orcalculate a contour map for the objects.
 4. The system of claim 1,wherein the contextual information comprises at least one of: apreference of the user, a physical condition associated with the user,or information associated with the environment.
 5. The system of claim1, wherein to determine the dynamically-adjustable aperture, thehardware processor is programmed to select the aperture between aminimum size and a maximum size.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein theminimum size is zero.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the actioncomprises rendering a focus indicator associated with the one or moreobjects.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein to detect the collisionbetween the virtual cone and the one or more objects, the hardwareprocessor is programmed to determine that the one or more objectsintersect with a virtual surface of the virtual cone or fall within thedynamically-adjustable aperture of the virtual cone.
 9. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the one or more objects comprise multiple collidedobjects, and the hardware processor is programmed to apply an occlusiondisambiguation technique to the multiple collided objects to identify anoccluded object or to determine a depth ordering or position amongoccluded objects.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or moreobjects comprise multiple collided objects, and the hardware processoris programmed to present a user interface element to select one or moreof the multiple collided objects.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein theaction with the one or more objects comprises one or more of: aselection of the one or more objects; a movement of the one or moreobjects; display of a menu or toolbar associated with the one or moreobjects; or a game operation on a virtual avatar in a game.
 12. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the virtual cone comprises a central ray, thedynamically-adjustable aperture is transverse to the central ray, and adirection of the central ray is based on a pose of the user.
 13. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the virtual cone comprises a proximal end,and the hardware processor is programmed to anchor the proximal end toat least one of the following locations: a location in-between theuser's eyes, a location on a portion of a user's arm, or a location on auser input device.
 14. The system of claim 1, wherein the virtual conecomprises a distal end, and to detect the collision, the hardwareprocessor is programmed to scan for collisions with the one or moreobjects within the distal end of the virtual cone.
 15. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the virtual cone comprises a proximal end, a distalend, or a depth, and the hardware processor is programmed to anchor theproximal end, the distal end, or the depth of the virtual cone based on:the contextual information, user input, a body gesture, a body pose, adirection of gaze, or a voice command.
 16. The system of claim 1,further comprising: a pose sensor configured to acquire pose dataassociated with a pose of the user; and wherein the hardware processoris programmed to: translate the virtual cone based on the pose dataassociated with the pose of the user.
 17. The system of claim 16,wherein the hardware processor is programmed to apply a multiplier tothe pose of the user.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the multiplierincreases with distance from the user.
 19. The system of claim 1,wherein the hardware processor is further programmed to: determinecontextual features of the one or more objects; and resize thedynamically-adjustable aperture of the virtual cone based at least inpart on the contextual features.
 20. The system of claim 1, wherein toinitiate the cone cast, the hardware processor is programmed to extend adistal end of the virtual cone until the distal end reaches atermination threshold.
 21. The system of claim 20, wherein thetermination threshold comprises a threshold distance or a boundary ofthe environment.
 22. The system of claim 1, wherein the hardwareprocessor is further programmed to: render to the user, via the displaysystem, a visual representation of at least a portion of the virtualcone.
 23. The system of claim 22, wherein the visual representation ofthe virtual cone comprises a color of the virtual cone.
 24. The systemof claim 23, wherein the color is based at least partly on a userpreference or the environment of the user.
 25. The system of claim 22,wherein the hardware processor is programmed to adjust a contrast of thevisual representation of the virtual cone.
 26. The system of claim 22,wherein the visual representation of at least a portion of the virtualcone comprises a visual representation of an aperture of the virtualcone, a surface of the virtual cone, or a central ray of the virtualcone.
 27. The system of claim 1, wherein the objects comprise virtualobjects.